Love Yourself
by Lightning-Dono
Summary: Seto loathed Isis so he decided indirect murder would be the best way to get rid of her. But how did it end up drawing them closer? [SetoIsis] [Ch. 35 - Authoress Note] [COMPLETE]
1. Abandoned

**Lightning-Dono**: Something I felt like writing because I was completely bored and on a sugar rush. :) And I'm intended to make this fanfic look neat, so I'm adding a disclaimer and everything. xD

Love Yourself - **Yuugi Ou **

_In a world of love and hate, it's always 'He likes her, she loves him back' and vice versa. But in this crooked atmosphere, does anyone ever say 'He loves himself'?_

Lightning-Dono doesn't own Yuugi Ou. If she did, she wouldn't be sitting around making lame fanfics. Plus, if she owned the series, she'd know possibly everything about Kaiba. But she doesn't, so that's reason enough to assume that she doesn't own the series and leave her alone.

-----

Kaiba was a privileged child. No one ever bothered to mess with him and his younger brother because they knew that their parents would always have their backs, ready to defend them at any cost. Kaiba and Mokuba took great pride in this and never took advantage. Who knew what could come along and completely screw up their lives.

It was an overcast day when the two brothers were hand forced into an orphanage due to the deaths of their parents.

"I don't wanna go!" The youngest of the Kaiba family cried, his dark hair wet from tears.

The man shook his head and in a comforting whisper said, "It'll be okay. It's only temporary."

"Mokie, it'll be okay," Kaiba told his brother firmly, although he was a bit shaken himself. The man handling Kaiba ran his fingers through his hair, rippling it like water in a pond.

"We don't have time for this!" He yelled huskily to the other man. "Let's just take 'em in there and let them be! We deserve a lunch break."

The men hauled a struggling young boy and his calm, older sibling in that day.

It was there that the two brothers became outcasts of their own world, despite their ambitious attempts to keep each other happy. Children in the orphanage shunted them aside, neglecting the fact that the two children even existed.

Kaiba often had to comfort Mokuba when he cried and whisper his plans to make all the children in the world happy by creating an amusement park to calm the boy down.

They lived like this for years.

Mokuba was only two years old. His brother was seven.


	2. Behind the Steel Door

**Lightning-Dono**: I'm just going to continue this anyway. I don't feel like writing it over a period of days and putting it up day by day. I'm going to put it up all at once. :D

The chapters are short because long chapters...are...uh...I don't know. xD Just read.

This chapter is a quick run-through of what seems to be happening lately.

-----

Ten years later, Kaiba was the CEO of his own company after defeating his wretched step-father who didn't seem to understand that it was Kaiba's company now. But even aging couldn't melt the icy barrier that had blocked his heart off from the rest of the world.

Ever since he had inherited (Or 'stolen', as Gozaburo liked to put it.) company, "power" had become his favorite word. Mokuba often wondered why his brother didn't have drool trickling down his chin every time he spoke of his power as Kaiba spoke to richly of it.

And ever since he had sealed himself within that ice, Mokuba had been trying to break it.

"'Niisama, do you want to go to the mall today?" He begged every day, hoping that Kaiba would eventually break and allow this once-in-a-century outing to take place.

Each time, though, the answer was, "No, Mokuba. I'm much too busy for such nonsense." Or, "Tomorrow, Mokuba."

Time must've froze, because they never went. Not even once. They only took occasional visits to Kaiba's Dueling Dome where they spent countless hours improving their technology.

It seemed that there was always some kind of flaw with the machinery to hold Kaiba up. He despised lame excuses, but he made them just as easily. Sometimes when he said, "The plasma screen isn't working," and went back to fix it, Mokuba would find him staring bleary-eyed into space.

When they went back to the company, and where their home was, they would enjoy a refined dinner while being watched by some guards who were eventually dismissed to enjoy their own dinners.

Often, Mokuba would notice that Kaiba hardly ate anything, claiming that gaining weight was dangerous for a duelist as they aren't physically fit for their task.

But the young boy just thought that this was another excuse that was quickly made so he could escape his brother's prying eyes.

At night when Mokuba climbed into his soft bed, he would hear hammering noises. It was then that he discovered his brother was a proven insomniac. Even at midnight the racket would continue, causing Mokuba to lose much sleep. The sound wasn't just annoying; it was haunting. It continuously hammered on, creating kind of an entrancing rhythm that no one could explain.

Finally, after losing his appetite and having problems getting up in the morning, Mokuba decided it was time to find the source of the sound. He knew that Kaiba was making it, but he wasn't positive as to what his brother was doing.

It was eleven o'clock at night and Mokuba longed to drop his eyelids, but he felt it was his mission to discover what was going on. Crawling out of bed, his sock-covered feet pattered softly down the tiled halls.

He came face to face with a steel door at the end of a corridor he had never even known to exist. Putting his ear to the door, Mokuba was sure the sound was being produced from inside the room.

Mokuba placed his hand on the handle and jerked the heavily built door open. Sure, enough Kaiba was there. But what he was making was questionable.

Perched on shelves the lined the walls of the room were tons of models of Duel Monsters. Each one had a small button that blended into the monster on it's front. A Blue-Eyes White Dragon lay on the ground, it's head smashed off. Mokuba's eyes roamed around the room until he came to his brother's shocked face.

"Mokuba, what are you doing here?" Kaiba interrogated, regaining his confident self and shoving Mokuba out of the room.

"N-Nothing, 'Niisama," Mokuba whispered, feeling guilt wash over him. He had been caught mingling in someone else's business. But another part of him felt that what his brother was doing, he should be involved in.

Kaiba's voice was rough and breathless. His hammer was clutched tightly in his right hand. "Forget what you saw tonight."

The door closed.


	3. Not All they Seem

**Lightning-Dono**: Wheeeeee, fun!

Answers to the Reviwers:

**Freak09**- What's what? :P Oh, well, I'm continuing now! I'm glad you're enjoying it so far. I'll keep the chapters nice and short so people with short attention spans can keep up. xD Okay, I'll stop rambling and write some more.

-----

After being defeated at Alcatraz Tower, Kaiba and Mokuba had flown up to Tokyo, hoping to buy some land and be able to start their chain of amusement parks.

But on the way, Kaiba met someone that he had never wanted to see again.

As he landed his ship and leapt onto the cement ground, a brown-haired young woman stood waiting for him. For a moment, Kaiba blinked and squinted at her familiar face with her long eyelashes and tapered chin.

"...Is that...?"

"Good afternoon, Kaiba." Her voice contained great mystical quality, and Kaiba was certain as to who it was.

"You're Isis, aren't you?"

Isis fiddled with her loose, Egyptian clothing for a moment. "Yes. I'm surprised that you still remember me after all this time."

Kaiba snorted. "'All the time' hasn't been very long, Isis. I, of course, would love for you to get out of my way so I can get on with my business."

Her eyes narrowed into slits that penetrated Kaiba's heart. "Kaiba, I would like you to know that a new problem has recently arisen. I believe you noticed the numerous Duel Monsters that were plodding around?"

The man snorted. "You think I'm ignorant, don't you?"

Isis's dress seemed to tighten around her. "I believe many people have filed complaints against you?"

"Well, you see, now that the whole deal is over, we can get back to work. Unless you have something to add to my extensive past. Then I probably won't be getting back to work because you'll be standing there explaining everything to me day and night."

For some reason, this didn't seem to anger Isis very much. In fact, it had no affect on her whatsoever. She was fairly used to the random explosions and snide comments that often expelled from the young CEO.

"No. I have come to inform you that the end is near."

Kaiba turned, his gravity-defying trench coat following. "Come on, Mokuba. I'm sure we've got other people to tell us that the world is coming to an end." He motioned to his younger brother, who obediently jumped from his seat in the BEWD ship.

"You'll be sorry you didn't listen to me, Kaiba."

The man laughed. "I'll be even more sorry if I stand around here listening to you and wasting precious minutes of my life."

Isis seemed to want to say something, but her voice died as she got out the first syllable. She really wasn't planning to tell him about the end of the world, but he seemed to think that was the area she was leaning towards.

For a couple of years now, Isis had looked at Kaiba as an uninformed person that refused to see the finer details of life – the details that never led towards power. And in those years, she had grown rather attached to him. She longed to make him understand that it wasn't just what he had been and what he had wanted, but to realize that what he did affected everyone.

Then again, Isis knew that he didn't give a crap about the world and that she should just give up anyway.

But feelings aren't all that they seem, right?


	4. Direct Confession

**Lightning-Dono**: Okay, so interest isn't exactly what I'm aiming for, correct? I'm sitting here in a band uniform, waiting for the right time to leave for the concert. I just nearly ripped my skirt by running down the stairs. Nooo...x.x

Answers to the Reviews 

**ryouholic **– I will continue it. Just you watch me. x)

**Yami no Marik **– Thanks! I do, too. I can't see Shizuka in love with someone that taunts her brother so often. I mean...She loved Jounouchi. She wouldn't be that evil.

**AbhorsenSabriel87** - Thanks for reviewing my fanfics! ((tackle)) You'll see what's up with Isis. ;)

-----

"That woman is the most annoying I've ever met," Kaiba was muttering to himself as he entered the cool, air-conditioned building. It was one of his sub-corporations that he owned for backup incase someone were to infiltrate the main building and destroy the data. "Next to that geek Anzu, of course," he added, hatred ringing in his voice.

He whisked his briefcase and his younger brother up the stairs into his office there, which supplied him with an advanced computer that contained a voice link, not to mention no phone so that it wasn't possible for anyone to reach him. He smiled, a rare occurrence, in pleasure. If there wasn't a way to contact him without having to confront him, Kaiba felt that he was safe for the moment.

Not long before Pegasus had decided to catch his attention to buy shares of his company up until he nearly owned the entire thing. Now he had nothing to worry about, lazing about in his comfortable office.

Mokuba remained in the corner, trying to look as though he were completely immersed in the office documents that lay around on the desk. Kaiba was fooled.

"Why don't you go play something, Mokuba?" Kaiba got up out of this recliner chair and strode over to his brother, who displayed the utmost look of boredom upon his light, young face.

"Can't you play with me? Just once?" Mokuba pleaded, not wanting to ask the guards or the secretaries to play video games with him. Either that or ask Yuugi-tachi over, but Kaiba certainly wouldn't allow that. Not to mention that they were miles away from where Yuugi was.

Kaiba didn't give this a second thought. "No. I have work to do, just like you have some playing to do." After staring impatiently into his brother's sad face for a minute or so, he decided that he needed to distract Mokuba with something other than words.

Pulling open a drawer in his desk, he reached within it's depths and pulled out a bag of candy. Mokuba's eyes brightened considerably.

"Take it," Kaiba grumbled. The last time Mokuba had gotten a cavity he had hidden it for so long to escape the dentist. In fact, he waited long enough that he soon after needed to practically pull the tooth out.

"Arigatou, 'Niisama!" He cried, catching the tossed bag of sweets that had been forfeited by his older brother moments before. What Kaiba was doing with a drawer of candy was questionable, but atleast he was giving it up.

"You're welcome. Please leave me to do my work, Mokuba."

The innocent boy left unharmed, smiling brightly and stuffing a Snickers bar into his mouth. His fingers were already stained with chocolate as he grasped the doorknob with his sticky fingers and let himself out. Kaiba eyed his brother as the boy continued to prance down the hallway. Getting up and closing the door himself, he sighed.

"Now, to business." He sat down and logged onto the information database for his company. Feeling highly important, he watched as the pictures whizzed by.

Suddenly, a large silhouette of the Millenium Ankh appeared on the screen. The other six Millenium followed suit, appearing one by one in a neat circle on the screen.

"What the hell?" Kaiba muttered, typing in a complicated code to override the virus. But even his high technology couldn't block the incoming infection. "What is going on here?" Kaiba demanded, his icy blue eyes piercing the screen.

Then, in the middle of the circle, appeared Isis's face. What her face was doing there, Kaiba had no idea, but he was slowly losing his patience. He lost it when he saw her face clearly displayed on his screen. _His_ screen. Out of all the computers in the world she had to infect his.

"Seto." Her voice rang from the speakers. Kaiba leaned forward on his desk, shoving his face closer to the screen.

"What is the meaning of this?" He shouted in a rather business-like manner.

"The meaning is what I want to tell you. I wish I could've approached this in another way, but there is no other way. Malik learned now to hack into systems so...I thought I'd do it this way." Isis sighed an artificial sigh that Seto saw through the moment it was released.

"Spit it out and leave me alone."

Isis did some pre-confession breathing exercises first. "I'm in love."

Seto snorted. "Why do you think I would care? Get out my life. NOW." He pounded the stiff wooden desk with his fists.

"The problem is that...I'm in love with you."

Time seemed to stop.


	5. Haunting Look

**Lightning-Dono**: This fanfic is interesting to write. o.o I'm not good at cliffies, though.

Answers to the Reviews 

**ryouholic** – I'm trying a different way, of course...I don't want to be taking ideas now, would I? :)

**Aldrea **– More coming your way! She's not trying to say that it's the end of the world, though. You'll get it, soon. And I'd hate to tell you this, but I can't eat Snickers because I'm allergic to peanuts. But thanks for the Mokie plushie! :D

This chapter is pretty short because I have homework, but I have so many ideas for where this fic is going to go.

-----

Seto's ego deflated considerably. He was told that this termite that seemed to live off his every word loved him.

"You lie," Seto breathed, even though every cell in his body and its nucleus it was the truth. The young man was certainly in denial now.

Isis's icy blue eyes seemed to be colder than the arctic tundra. "You still put the truth to the side, Kaiba? After all these years you haven't gained enough courage to accept what you see?"

"And I see that after all these years you haven't been able to live in reality. You see, I have no interest in you." Seto was about to completely shut off the monitor, but in came Mokuba, clutching the bag of candy in one hand and grinning madly. Not noticing that they were at an audience to Isis, he sat cross-legged on the tiled floor and began to stuff the sweet substance in his mouth.

"Don't lie to yourself, Kaiba. I know..."

Seto could just about picture a misty crystal ball floating infront of her and Isis wrapping her fingers around it obsessively.

"And how do you know?"

Isis's eyes twinkled mischievously. "When the Millenium Necklace was still in my possession, I saw far into the future. My readings took me to a vision of which you and I were alone, hand-in-hand. Would that be enough proof for you, Kaiba? Or do you need more evidence?"

Seto felt like bouncing up and down in his chair and cackling, but that was just too insane for him, so he sunk down in his chair, crossed his arms, and expelled one of his usual comments. "Just because you see us together doesn't mean anything. Now get out of my computer and my life."

"It's about to end-,"

Seto pressed the miniscule button beneath a panel to shut down the entire system. The screen flickered and went completely black.

Seto released a heavy sigh. Now he couldn't even work without that pesky woman appearing out of no where and installing viruses into his system. He wouldn't be surprised if he were browsing his files and all his icons had magically become little sprites of Isis's face or something. He knew that she was odd like that.

The thing that bothered him was what she kept saying. What was about to end?

But the one thing that bothered him even more was the look she had given him before he had shut down the system. It was a knowing, yet menacing look.

Whatever that look had meant, it was haunting. And he wasn't going to sleep for a second until he figured out what why it had been given to him.


	6. Letter from Fate Itself

**Lightning-Dono**: I'm suddenly aiming for humor. x.x I'm not going to wait for any reviews. Beware the OOC-ness of Kaiba.

This chapter isn't long, either.

-----

It appeared that his plan to not sleep a second wasn't a very good idea. A few days later, Seto collapsed while at work on his desk and fell into a deep slumber.

"'Niisama, you need to finish your paperwork!" A completely sober Mokuba shook Seto urgently. The pen slipped from Seto's slender fingers as the young boy shook his brother.

Seto jerked awake for a few moments. "Mokuba...Just go play..." He interrupted this with a long, healthful yawn. "...someplace else." His head dropped back into his arms, but his eyes continued to stay open as he watched Mokuba leave the room.

He felt exceptionally lightheaded as he operated his laptop in the privacy of his office, reviewing the events of the previous days in his head. He had been sitting there for the past few days, playing Isis's little episode over and over in his head like a CD player on repeat.

"What does it all mean?" He shouted when he finally snapped after sitting at his laptop, his fingers wandering over the keys, but nothing getting done. Seto wasn't usually troubled by nonsense made by common people that had no power over what he did, but he couldn't seem to take Isis of his mind. In fact, in fear of turning on his main computer to find that the whole thing had been turned a sandy Egypt brown and decorated with Isis's face, he had ceased to operate it at all.

Roland (A/N: I forgot his Japanese name. o.o) staggered into the room, balancing a tray of food in one hand and a stack of envelopes in the other.

"Your food and mail, sir," Roland said with a bow, placing the items down on a spare table in the room. "I do believe someone is filing a complaint against you for not finishing your paperwork on time? The company has been expecting a quarterly quota on how well your company has been going, but since you haven't sent them the information yet..." His voice trailed off into nothingness.

Seto dismissed the man. "I'll work on it," he lied deliberately, tiredly ripping open the first envelope. He sighed when he read the first line. "I can pay them the money later," he muttered. "That's one power I have." He smiled grimly as he placed it neatly on the tray of food.

The next envelope was a beige color, patterned with what looked like opals. Seto frowned. Was this an offer for some kind of jewelry? He wasn't very interested in buying any products, but it was part of his responsibility to maintain order within his company. Seto acknowledged the fact that companies had the right to break ties with his company if they wished, causing very controversial events, most likely leading to chaos.

If there was anything Seto hated more than people trying to take advantage of him it was chaos.

Unknowingly, he slit the top of the envelope with a knife on his food tray and a neatly folded letter fell into his lap. Throwing the envelope aside, he unfolded the letter and stared at the handwritten print. It was obscenely small, but he could make out some of the letters. Finally, Seto's eyes adjusted to the strange curl of the letters and he was able to read it.

"_My, my, Seto._

_Have you not heeded my hidden warning? I mean what I say. It's going to end very soon. The world will not end, in deed not. The Pharaoh will take care of that matter, of course. In fact, I have much faith in the matter. The problem is your part of it. Since your part won't come into play for a while, I know you must be terribly bored, cooped up inside your little...cubicle, was it?"_

"Office, you nutcase," Seto muttered, fighting the urge to throw away the paper. But the world needed atleast one informed person.

"_At any rate, what I have told you will happen. I can sense it. Every time I see you, I know I'm slowly, almost magnetically, being drawn to you. It's fate's way of telling us that we were meant to be together."_

_For some reason, a warm feeling rose to Seto's face, mainly around his cheeks. "Fate can't do this to me," he moaned. _


	7. Bound in Hate

**Lightning-Dono**: Ignore the mistake with the last line in the last chapter that was accidentally italicized. n.n;

**Serenity ReinHeart **– Oh, I love the enthusiasm you have for this fanfic! Thanks so much! Seto x Isis is one of my favorite couples and it makes a lot more sense than some couples I've seen for Yuugi Ou. –coughcough- Seto x Honda –coughcough-

-----

Isis spread herself across the carpet of the small house Malik, Rishid, and she now lived in. Her clothing lay in folds around her as she contemplated the best way to get Seto to understand her growing passion. She was especially proud of her letter.

"Now that I've gotten that out, how shall I get him to like me better?" Her mouth stretched into a smile as she traced a simple picture of herself on the carpet with her index finger.

Malik entered the room, tugging wildly on his shirt. "Isis, does this place have any air conditioning?" He complained airing himself by jerking his collar back and forth. Isis turned and watched as her brother continued this strange action.

"Malik, this is Egypt, not Japan."

Malik sighed and left the room, grumbling about how they were so insanely poor they couldn't afford to install an air conditioning system. Isis, feeling a bit hurt by the way Malik was speaking of their country, struggled to find a way to get him to see the bright side.

"There's a fan downstairs," Isis called.

"Arigatou, onee-chan." There was a pattering of footsteps and moments later, a relaxed yawn exploded up the stairs.

Isis returned to her troubled thoughts, her hair splayed around her shoulders as she got up. "I suppose I'll draw him a picture to express my desire." She broke into a grin that was unusual for her and then hurried up the flimsy wooden stairs to her personal chamber. The walls were decorated with photographs of their experiences in Battle City. The wall itself was a simple tan color while bits of brown marble-patterned wallpaper peeled at places along some spots on one wall. She had only enough money to buy one roll for the entire wall so she lived with that.

Sitting down at her desk in a mahogany chair constructed of wood that didn't seem exactly fit to be made into furniture, she picked up her pencil and gnawed on the eraser slightly in thought. Isis had a horrible bad habit of chewing on the eraser whenever she was in deep thought.

Fianlly, pulling a piece of paper from the pile on her desk, her right hand shot out and darted about the paper, sketching a detailed picture of herself, guidelines and all. Her eyes were startlingly wide as the soon-to-be-drawn figure drew her in with his hands.

Obviously, that figure was her dream love.

Filling in the black space with Seto's lanky figure, she made his arms wrap around her waist as he pulled her in for an embrace. Isis imagined that the being in the picture that was to be her would accept it whole-heartedly, and that was about enough to send Isis traveling across the seas to get to Seto, just to perform the act inside the picture.

Accepting the fact that she didn't possess any pens or coloring utensils, she made with what she had. Erasing any stray lines to reveal a clean picture, she shaded in the folds of her formal attire and whatever else needed shading. For the eyes she darkly colored in with the lead for the pupils and shaded the rest of the eyes a color that steadily lightened as she went along.

Extremely pleased with the final product, she lovingly placed it inside a large envelope, wrote in loopy handwriting for the addresses, and stumbled down the stairs as though intoxicated.

There, stark still in the middle of the floor, was Rishid. His arms were bound around the legs of a chair and a handkerchief was tied tightly around his mouth. Between his feet he bore a letter.

"What happened!?" Cried Isis in concern and terror as she rushed over to free her half-brother. At once, once she unwrapped the handkerchief, Rishid rushed into a lengthy explanation of what had happened. His breathing was labored as he spoke, taking a small breath every few words.

"Isis – Seto's men gave – me this letter. Says – he – doesn't want – you to – bother him – any – more," the poor man panted.

Isis froze in the middle of unbinding Rishid's arms so he could move.

"Coward," she whispered fiercely as she did so. "Hurting my family just to get to me."

Rishid sprung off the ground, in a manner that was way too energetic to belong to a man that had just been panting out words moments ago.

"Seto...I'll get to you someday. I know I will."

Isis smiled an uncompromising smile.

"Even if it means doing something that you'll never expect me to."


	8. Disheartened Feelings

**Lightning-Dono**: Wow! I'm so inspired to write more! 1!1eleven11! (I'm just kidding. xD)

Malik is kind of odd in this chapter. Oops. xD;

Answers to Reviewers 

**ryouholic** – Wow...You dislike my approach, but you congratulate me on my work, anyway! Don't worry, we all have different tastes as to what we think should happen. It's okay, I understand. :) Thank you for taking the time to read it anyway.

**can't think** – I'm so glad you liked it! :D This is one of the first times I've ever been complimented so well on a fanfic like this. xD Thank you thank you THANK YOU!

-----

Isis unfolded the letter carefully, aware of the fact that Seto might've put a mini bomb in it. She was getting the feeling that she'd never be able to trust Seto very well, no matter how involved they got in each other.

"Just like Seto to type out a letter," she thought, feeling annoyed. The man was completely immersed in his countless technology. Her eyes were forced to adjust to the small, business-like font.

_Isis._

_You know what I want to say to you? I want to congratulate you on getting this far with your pointless trickery. And though it isn't trickery, its atleast some sort of blackmail you're planning. _

"Can't make up your mind?" Isis's lips grew into a thin, straight, bloodless line.

_At any rate, I'd much appreciate it if you just stay away from me. Why? Because I've got enough people hounding me already without another person that's after my blood. Isis, I'm tired of your attempts to get closer to me and profess your love in a harmless manner. I assure you that I'm not buying one second of it, and with that said, you should just back off and mind your own business._

_And never hack into my systems again unless you want me to come their up close and personal._

_-Kaiba Seto_

_CEO of Kaiba Corporation_

Isis reread the last line. "That would be nice. It'd be just grand to see you 'up close and personal'."

She announced her leaving a few days before at dinner.

Malik, Rishid, and Isis were feasting upon freshly cooked vegetables and chicken that Rishid had whole-heartedly prepared. In fact, it seemed that cooking was one of his only passions in life.

"I will be taking a trip soon," she said in her usual tone of voice, which was either mystical or filled with an aura that made people think she was predicting the future. No matter what she said, it sounded as though she were, so it didn't make much of a difference.

"Wmmmhy?" Malik uttered, his mouth full of the flavorful chicken. Rishid turned to stare at his younger half-brother who was wolfing down food. In this case, he was putting more in his mouth than he could chew and swallow.

Isis put a reasonable amount of food onto her fork and lifted it delicately to her mouth. "I must go to Japan once more to confront someone."

Malik fluttered his minimal amount of eyelashes in a seductive manner and clasped his hands together on the table. "Is this someone your...Secret love?" His innocent smile evolved into a menacing grin that was directed towards his older sister.

The woman frowned disapprovingly. "It is no longer a secret, my dear brother."

"Mmmmm...I mean, good point." Malik licked his lips impatiently. "Let's stop talking and start eating!" He mentally drooled over all the luscious food courses that lay spread out infront of him. "I shall savor every bite of that-,"

"You're free to help yourself, Malik," Isis pointed out.

"Oh, right." The teen reached out and grabbed the dish of salads. There he picked out some select lettuce leaves, poured himself a large helping off the dressing, and nearly flung it back to the other side of the table had Rishid not stopped him.

Isis watched this in slight amusement. "I will make an entrance at Seto's building and make sure that he notices me." She waited for this to create an impact upon the two males that sat by her.

Malik stopped eating to silently think about this. Finally, he asked, "Are you going to dress up in really...er...revealing clothes and float infront of his office window or something?"

To his horror, Isis seemed to be considering this idea.

"I could, but that would make him like me less." She paused for a second, and her heart felt gravity take its toll on it as she muttered, "even less than he does now."

Malik used his tastes for women to help Isis in this matter. "Well, atleast do your hair or something. I'm sure if you looked a little different it'd make him go 'Wow' and stuff instead of just seeing you and saying, 'Oh, there's Isis.'.

Rishid nudged Malik in the ribs to make him notice that Isis was suddenly very depressed.

"...How can I make him like me?" She nearly wailed, collapsing onto the table, shaking with suppressed tears.


	9. Memories Held Dear

**Lightning-Dono**: Talk about mild drama (Referring to end of the previous chapter). O.o And happy Veteran's Day to all! Okay, not HAPPY Veteran's Day, but something like that.

Answers to the Reviews. DUH.

**can't think** – Yes, poor Isis...I can only slightly imagine her crying a bit, though. xD Heh, you like that line, don't you? xD;

Seto: ((cackle cackle cackle)) ((bounces up and down in chair)) (They don't allow asterisks. Darn it!)

Lightning-Dono: o.o; Wow.

-----

Rishid and Malik had their forks suspended in the air, stunned as they watched the strong woman sob into the table. 

Malik awkwardly dropped his fork with a clatter and ran over to aid his sister. "Are you okay?" He asked, his tone of voice carrying the worry of someone who had just witnessed a car crash.

Isis continued to shake, but there was no reply. Just a couple of forlorn sobs that pierced the still air.

He proceeded to grabbing a box of sandy-colored, scented tissues and thrusting them to Rishid.

"Don't just sit there, help her!"

Rishid stared at the box in his arms as though he had never seen such a thing before in his life. "Uh...All right." He approached his half-sister carefully, pulled a piece of tissue out, and stood there, planning out some strategic moves.

From behind Isis, Malik poked her. Isis wasn't very pleased by this.

"Leave me alone!" She bellowed, raising her head for a split second to shake loose strands of hair from her face. She was caught by surprise when Rishid tilted her head up with two fingers, carefully placed below the chin, and dabbed at her cheeks lightly with the tissue. Rishid looked more like he was applying make-up to a movie star rather than soaking up tears from Isis's face. He continued to dab meticulously until Isis shook him off and padded up the creaky stairs, drying her eyes in humiliation.

"Well, that settles that." Malik returned to his seat at the table and quietly resumed eating.

Rishid just stood stark still in his spot. "I think he likes her more than we know," he concluded seriously before uttering a soft prayer for Isis and sitting down.

Up in her room, Isis was tossing things into a valise, fuming as she did so.

"I can't believe I just broke down infront of them!" Over her shoulder went a wooly undershirt. "What an insult to my reputation!" A shoe went flying into the wall, which caused a small commotion downstairs, mainly involving Malik suddenly telling a horror story about Isis being thrown into a wall. "Not quite," Isis said furiously under her breath as she latched the buckles on the valise and tossed it onto her firm bed. "I'm leaving a couple days early. I don't need to go by plans anyway. Probably couldn't stand another minute of Kaiba's obstinacy."

She spent a few moments surveying her room, picking out select items to bring with her. "I might not return for a while, so I should take what I can." But on her search, the only thing she found was something she held very dear.

A picture of Malik, Rishid, and she out fishing by the Nile River. They were all so innocent, so cheerful, not at all as dark as they were now. Malik was clutching a flopping fish in one hand while Rishid, though in stately clothing, raised his fishing rod over his shoulder and was smiling. Isis sat in the high grass, waving to the camera man, presumably a fisherman.

Unbuckling her valise, she smiled at the picture in a heart-felt way. Hugging it close to her chest, a tear streaked down her smooth cheek as the memories rushed through her mind.

Those moments where she had spent so much time comforting her brother, assuring him that his yami wouldn't be bad, even though deep in the wells of her heart she knew better. The times where she had to tell Kaiba to understand that his ancient past was more than he thought it was so many times that she wanted to just scream in his disbelieving face. And those times where she saw him dueling so valiantly, even against Isis herself, battling for his future.

But even more, she reminisced on the days where darkness was brought upon them. When Jounouchi lost his soul dueling against her only brother, taken over by an angry force brought forth within him. Flashbacks that contained nothing but colors that whizzed by that displayed the future.

"The future is so complex...How foolish did I have to be to think I could see into it from a silly necklace?" Isis thought to herself as she neatly placed the picture under a folded shirt in her valise, buckling it again. "I sound like Seto now...But if I am to like him, aren't I to think like him to?"

Isis, not being an expert at deep romance, pondered upon this for a while. She turned to face the mirror on the side wall of her room. Her turquoise eyes were showing signs of tiredness, as were her arms that were limply hung at her sides.

"I suppose I should get going now." Picking up her valise, Isis stalked out of the room with a sense of strength and pride she had inserted into herself. If she was to face Seto, she needed this sudden burst of confidence to defend herself or he'd injure her spirit more than needed.

She walked out on an unsuspecting Malik who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, dealing cards to Rishid, who he had forced into playing.

"You're leaving now?" He questioned in surprise, turning his head in her vague direction.

"Yes."

Malik, in turn, jumped up off the ground and threw his arms around his older sister. "I'm sorry if this seems sentimental and all...I mean, the hug. But be careful around Kaiba."

Isis wrapped her arms around his shoulders and patted his upper back with her slender fingers and femininely-shaped hand. "I will."

Her brother let go as she unlocked the door quietly slipping through the opening.

"Ra, keep her safe," Rishid personally told Ra in a quick whisper before Malik found his place on the ground.

"Now, a second round of Blackjack, right?" Malik challenged happily. Rishid groaned for they had been playing for half an hour now and Malik still wasn't satisfied.

"As you wish, Malik."

Isis strode through the streets, her right dress slightly blowing in the sandy winds that blew through Cairo. People everywhere held cloths up to their noses and mouths to filter the air of sand.

She arrived quickly at the airport as their home was very close to the industrialized section of the subdivided city.

Isis was to board a scheduled flight that evening for the center of Kitakyushu, a major city in Japan where Kaiba had his secondary headquarters. She had heard previously on the news that he would be holding a press conference there regarding a new version of duel disks, but she wouldn't wait.

With a feeling of importance, she knew that what she had to say was much more important than new technology. That could wait as many people could already do without the change (Economic suffrages were one thing. Not that many people can afford to buy a new duel disk.).

No, she was going to announce her affection for Kaiba right infront of the whole Kaiba Corporation committee that was to be there and make the man she was after turn red.


	10. Maneuver to your Heart

**Lightning-Dono**: Well, what'd'ya know? I'm writing another chapter. AND I'm listening to You're Not Me, that one song that I seriously loved during the Yu-Gi-Oh movie. x3 But this line in the song "But spare me all your lame advice" is so terrible. It ruined the whole song!

Answers to the Reviewer, because can't think is special and is the only reviewer 

**can't think **– You'll see. ;) Knowing me, it won't be anything too good, but it'll make SOME impact in Seto's life. o.o I don't think I should. xD I'd just be really OOC and odd...Then again, he's already OOC half the time. Oops. o.o We had to play at the Veteran's Day concert for school yesterday. Half the school day in a band uniform! Urgh...But I _like_ Valentines Day! Veteran's Day is kinda boring.

-----

Seto raised his hands to calm the group of men before him, who were already busy discussing the new technology improvements, arguing, and knocking over their coffee in protest by pounding their fists on the table.

"If you are all to stay employed at my company, you must learn how to _CONTROL YOURSELVES_!" Seto yelled above the commotion after the supposedly calm-making arm motions that didn't have any effect on them.

The men stopped bellowing at each other long enough to notice that their boss had just spoken to them. Then another argument rose up.

"How come you mainly employ young women with bright, colorful hair and moderately high-pitched voices?" Piped up one young man who was stroking his tie fondly.

"Yes, Kaiba-san, what is the reason?"

"They're all IDENTICAL!"

The whole thing died out when Kaiba stood up and gave the pile of papers infront of him a smack to send them flying all over the floor. "That remains to be none of your business! This meeting you have attended is to discuss what type of new technology we'll be using, not to bash the people who work in my company."

Silence followed this statement, leaving the men blank and out of things to say.

"The floor is now open to discussion of what design we shall use."

The men looked from one to another, slowly lifting steaming cups of coffee to their still lips while their eyes wandered from one face to another.

Kaiba grew impatient from the sudden lack of interest in the idea that had recently been proposed by one of the workers who somehow found the current style 'old, dull, and distasteful'. And Kaiba wasn't about to let anyone insult his products like that, so he decided to hold a conference of what to do for it.

Finally, one balding man wearing a brown trench coat spoke up. "I suggest that we make the new design more colorful."

"How so?" Questioned Kaiba.

The man grew a dreamy look in his once opaque eyes. "By, say, making it...rainbow colored. Like, you know, red, orange, yellow..." His voice trailed off into nothingness. Kaiba raised an eyebrow, staring avidly at the man.

"You mean to tell me that you wish us to paint it an array of colors that often appear in the average rainbow?"

He considered this for a moment, soaking in the large words that his boss was using. "Yes," he replied slowly.

Kaiba looked like he was about to transform into a werewolf any moment, just to frighten the man into using common sense. If he did that, Kaiba Corp. would be the laughing stock in households for years to come. Then again, it would attract more attention to the games, perhaps raising money, but that would come at a cost. Besides, what teenager would want to walk around with a rainbow duel disk, sticking cards into them?

"I shall consider that," Kaiba lied, much to the horror of the other eleven men, who were glancing at him, just to make sure he was okay. "Any other suggestions?"

"I think we should use colors that wouldn't clash as much. Light blue, white, and red aren't choice because they don't go together. I suggest a black for the background, a navy blue for the backing of the place where you put the cards, and the bright red things on it. The life point counter should stay as it is." The young man nodded wisely, his arms crossed across his chest, indicating clearly that he was extremely egotistic.

Kaiba jotted this down on a small notepad that he had pulled from a secret pocket on the inside of his coat. It was then that the pages of the notepad started ruffling and blew around. He remembered leaving the window open because it was sweltering inside the room, but he hadn't been expecting such a breeze to come through.

"Someone close the window!" Kaiba shouted when strands of his hair started to sway around dramatically.

A man that was sitting by the window rushed to shut it, but hesitated. "You have a visitor, Kaiba-san."

"Through the window? Please." Kaiba continued to write in the notepad, expecting the window to be closed sometime. When the wind continued to blow through, Kaiba lost it. "**SHUT THE DARN WINDOW**!" He screamed at the man that was gazing through the window. It wasn't until he saw the steel landing strips emerging into view that he realized what was going on. "A helicopter? Who's flying a helicopter right outside my building!?" Kaiba strode quickly to the window, leaned out, and looked up towards the helicopter. Mokuba happened to be in the cockpit, so Kaiba assumed that everything was fine and his little brother was just practicing maneuvering the helicopter.

Isis pounced from the other side onto Kaiba's shoulders with amazing accuracy, sending Kaiba tumbling backward into the table. The men shouted in panic and ran out of the way. Papers and various documents flew into the air like a million paper airplanes, scattering onto the ground and stepped on by the confused men.

The two ended up on the ground. Kaiba was lying on his back, slightly disorientated as he groped about for something to grip onto and lift himself up. Isis was kneeling on Kaiba's chest, which made is quite difficult for the man to get up.

"Get off of me," Kaiba whispered menacingly at the tanned woman that stayed stationary on his chest.

"Kaiba, you don't know how long I wanted to do that," she told him in relish.

Kaiba added a bit of venom into his push on the ground, attempting to lift himself while making Isis fall off. She didn't budge, and neither could he. The men that were once paralyzed with fear crowded the couple and either displayed knowing grins or disapproving frowns.

"Didn't I tell you, Kaiba? You wouldn't believe me. It's going to end. Will you listen to what is going to end now?"

"Anything to get you off of me," Kaiba grunted angrily.

Isis took a deep breath. "You always interrupt me, leave me while I'm telling you something. Now you'll finally know what is going to end. Your single life."

Kaiba glared daggers at her. "Are you telling me you'll kill me?" The man obviously didn't know what 'single life' meant. The employees laughed openly as they witnessed the head honcho at his weakest moment.

"No. I'm saying that your days as a single is over. Because now you've got me."

-----

Who knew Isis had it in her? xD


	11. Proving You Wrong

**Lightning-Dono**: Gee, isn't Isis just...Wild? xD I can't believe that I made her do that. Wh00...

Once again, Answer to the Reviewer.

**can't think** – Whoa, long review alert! :o Psh, I don't have a boyfriend, but my school made this new rule saying we can't have any PDA, so I'm all good with that. Sure want a boyfriend, though. Isis and Seto are making me look bad. xD; I'm glad you think those are so funny! Should I change the drama part of the genre to humor? o.o

-----

Malik dealt the cards once more when the television flickered on unexpectedly. He turned to find that Rishid was now in control of the remote, oblivious to the fact that Malik was giving him cards.

"I don't want to play anymore, Malik," Rishid told his brother firmly, skipping channels on the fuzzy TV with the crooked antenna that they owned. Someone watching it would've thought that their vision had been impaired over the past few seconds if they hadn't known better.

"But this is fun!" The dirty blonde teenager pouted childishly. Ever since he had been freed from his task as a Tomb Keeper, Malik had been taking a lot of things into consideration. Maturity being one of them. Apparently he thought that he should only be mature when he had a task.

Otherwise, he was completely wild and acted much like the ten-year-old he used to be some six years ago. At times Rishid and Isis had often thought that it was a complete mistake to make this decision, but found that it was nice that their brother was now light-hearted, free of his dark side.

The adult male turned to find that Malik had completely changed his position, turning his back upon his older brother to attempt and play cards against himself. Rishid chuckled lightly before giving the TV his full attention. It was the news channel, which was practically the only channel that actually had high definition on their non-cable television.

"Isn't that Isis?" Rishid muttered worriedly, squinting at the small snapshot in the top right-hand corner of the screen that stayed there while the studio workers gave the full summary of what had happened.

Malik stared at the screen. "That _is_ Isis. Why is she on the news?"

"Maybe if you'll be quiet we'd be able to hear," Rishid grunted back.

"And now, a live report from one of our reporters who was at the scene."

They switched to the reporter, who was standing right outside the steel blue building that bore the words 'Kaiba Corp.' on a neon sign suspended right at the top. She was wearing a red jacket that stood out horribly against the dark building behind her.

"Just moments ago, an Egyptian woman was caught leaping off a helicopter that appeared to be hovering right outside the window of a meeting room where Kaiba and his committee were discussing advancements in their dueling systems."

Malik and Rishi exchanged wide-eyed looks. "Looks like she's lost it," Malik commented.

"The woman was later identified as Isis Ishtar, a descendant of a Tomb Keeper clan that resides in Cairo, Egypt. We have yet to confront her, but we have confirmed that Kaiba Mokuba was piloting the helicopter at that time. At this time we do not have live footage of this act, but we assure you that the president of Kaiba Corp will have something to say about this. Back to you."

Another report followed about a mass murder caused by a planted bomb somewhere in a city miles from Tokyo.

"What do you think they were doing?" Rishid asked, fingering the folds of his robe nervously.

"Who? The guy who planted the bomb? I don't know. Trying to kill people?"

Rishid paled considerably. "NO! I mean what Isis and Mokuba were doing outside of Kaiba Corp's secondary building. You don't think-,"

"You know what, Rishid, I think that she was trying to get Kaiba to _love_ her by pulling off such a stunt. I mean, how many women are daring enough to jump right off a helicopter?"

"But they didn't say where she landed," the older male pointed out. "Why would Kaiba have something to say about that?"

Malik pondered upon this, his facial features screwed up in thought. "Hmmm...Maybe because he doesn't like people bungee jumping right outside his building? You know how much that guy hates too much publicity. Perhaps he thinks that people might think that outside his building is a potential spot for bungee jumping so the next thing you know- POOF! The whole population of Japan will be lined up outside his building, getting ready to bungee jump off a helicopter."

Rishid's eye twitched as he took in these words. "I don't think that's the case," he said skeptically. "I think she might've jumped in through the window. That would've caused quite the disruption, don't you think so?"

The phone rang loudly from the simple kitchen counter.

"I'll get that!" Malik pranced to the kitchen happily. He had also grown a strange obsession with phones and any other types of communication. Rishid could hear the clatter he made when he accidentally dropped the receiver and had to bend over to retrieve it.

"Hello," the dirt blonde-haired boy said into the phone...At the wrong end.

"WHO IS THIS!?" The person at the other end screamed through, thinking that their phones were really tacky to volume was minimal. Malik was forced to turn it around.

"It's Malik at your service."

A relieved sigh and chattering erupted from the other end. "Hey, Malik, it's Jounouchi. We were just watching the news and we think we're onto something."

Malik grew interested and concerned at the same time. "What are you on to?"

"I think Isis has...a death wish," came the reply in hushed tones.

The young teen's eyes grew large as an opal gem dug up from a mine. "What are you talking about, you dummy!? She just loves Kaiba, that's all!" The second that had exploded from his lips, he immediately flinched in instant remorse.

There was a burst of raucous laughter from the other end. "Are you serious? In love with that anti-social guy? That's the FUNNIEST thing I've ever heard!" Jounouchi took a deep, calming breath. "Well, what ever you say. I think it's still an unfulfilled death wish. People don't just go leaping off helicopters on a daily basis, Malik."

Malik snorted. "Watch, on Thursday everyone will go jumping off helicopters just to prove you wrong."


	12. Loose Hugs

**Lightning-Dono**: This chapter will actually have stuff about Seto and Isis and not seeing them through a TV screen. xD

Answers. To. The. One. Special. Reviewer.

**can't think** – Oh, don't worry about that, I _like_ long reviews! :o And you're always interesting to listen to. ;D I liked the no PDA rule because it was kind of gross when they were smooching in the halls. o.o But they consider brief hugging and holding hands PDA. Shoot. Yeah...But three genres would be a bit too much.

-----

The steady pulsing of Seto's heart skipped, like an old tape that had stuttering sound and movement.

"What?" He rasped in horror, choking on his very voice as it caught in his throat. He forced it up to make the dizzying circle of men around him stop sniggering. _I hate them, too_, Seto thought bitterly as he watched man after man whisper to one another, all glancing at him once in a while, as thought to see if he was watching. The sad thing was that they _knew_ he was watching, but were just doing that to annoy him.

Seto felt his vision blur, as though in order to knock him out just so he wouldn't be embarrassed any longer. His head literally spun at the thought of having this woman love him so passionately that she had gone jumping through his window just to get the point across. Well, he got it, all right, and he wasn't happy. He felt his breathing become faster as Isis removed herself from his body, perching herself on the floor in a position that would've made any man swoon. Supposedly any man but Kaiba Seto, but the image swam before his eyes like an underwater vision. Then he felt a startling heat that crawled up his cheek. Such an unusual feeling that he had never had before. Was he actually falling under her spell?

"What do you feel, Seto?" Isis asked in a serene voice.

He gained back some of his arrogance. "Nothing," he replied angrily. "Get out of my office."

Isis's head spun around the room. "This isn't your office," she said simply as the men around them continued to laugh at their boss's stupidity. "This is a meeting room where you hold your conferences. Don't tell me you're confused about the purposes of the rooms in your own building."

The man's eyes grew icily blue. The kind of ice that gives you the feeling that it's burning like acid through your very skin when you touch it. "Never get smart with me."

"Oops, I just did." A hand flew daintily to her mouth. It was one of the first times she had intended to mess with Kaiba, and she was having much fun doing it. She was extremely experienced in the area of random explosions from Kaiba. In fact, she wouldn't be at all surprised if the man's head just popped off like a shaken soda bottle.

That was when the fight began. Kaiba pushed himself entirely onto his feet and unsteadily stepped towards a calm Isis still positioned like a cocky lion on the hard floor, her eyes following him.

"Stay away from me. You hear?" The used-to-be blush left an aftermath effect on his face, making his pale cheeks turn from a bright cherry to sakura blossom pink. But now the pink wasn't there because he was feeling a little embarrassed and, for a split second, felt a little seduced by Isis. It was there because he was as angry as a jumped madman.

In the blink of an eye he had extracted a pocket knife from a compartment in his skin-tight pants and was threatening Isis with it.

"One more movement to try and steal my heart and I dig this through your sorry skin," he growled angrily. Isis hastily rose from the ground.

A man standing in the circle had half a mind to pull out his cell phone and call the cops on Kaiba, but decided he would only do that under the circumstance that there was an actual assault happening.

"What's wrong, Kaiba? Afraid that I might actually win you?" She carried a daring glint in her eye that made it very hard for Kaiba to determine whether she was bluffing or she actually had an ace up her sleeve.

"In your dreams," Kaiba retorted, feeling the adrenaline rush through him, pumping through his veins. He leaped up and attempted to pound himself onto Isis, who was watching him with amusement.

"And now, I shall dodge," Isis said in a mockery of the days where she still had the Millenium Necklace and predicted the future. She stepped casually aside, leaving Kaiba to land on his knees in the position of a worshipping servant.

Kaiba launched himself at her one more, this time using one of the useful martial arts moves he had learned over the years. As she dodged, a very predictable move, he kicked back with his heel, catching her in the back of her legs. In surprise, she fell backwards helplessly into a man that happened to be the way. He caught her by the arms and threw her forward recklessly.

"I have no intention to fight you, but now I see that I must."

"Better think again. By the time this is over, there will only be one victor. The other one will either be in need of medical attention, or," Kaiba gestured towards the window with a violent sideways jerk of his head, "jump out the window." He smirked.

Isis rubbed her hands together. "There will be neither. Rather, there will be a loving embrace between the two current fighters."

The men slowly backed away from the combating couple, leaving them exposed.

"I don't think that will happen," Kaiba returned, a dangerous grin appearing on his face as he cracked his knuckles, falling into a fighting stance that helped him attain ultimate balance.

But what happened next was nothing that he had expected. Isis bounced over to him, a small skip interrupting her in mid-bounce. She grabbed his broad shoulders and drew him close enough for her to lean over and whisper in his ear.

Kaiba's jaw dropped, but he forced it to close, but the horrific expression still lingered in his startling blue eyes.

Isis dropped herself forward witheringly and turned her head so that her right cheek rested carefully on Seto's shoulder. "I told you that I'd get you," Isis whispered into his ear that stuck out from his head like those of an alien.

Outside, a camera man in a helicopter hovered, capturing this moment on film for half the world to see.


	13. Tell Me that you Love Me

**Lightning-Dono**: Whew! I'm home how after doing some shopping, so...I'm bringing you this chapter. :)

Key 

_((insert text here))_: Yuugi to Yami

-_insert text here_-: Yami to Yugi

Answers to the Reviewers 

**Sackachih **– Thanks! Wow, a new reviewer! :O Yes, I know, Isis is out of character. But this fanfic wouldn't be good if she wasn't. If she wasn't, she'd just keep her distance and nothing would happen. Nothing. xD; Oh, I don't know how many chapters there will be. Enough to carry out the full story line, I guess? And if I feel like it, I might write a sequel. We'll just have to see.

-----

Yuugi, Anzu, Jounouchi, and Honda were crouched around the television in Yuugi's room upstairs. Their eyes were completely glued to screen, unbelieving.

What the heck was Isis doing on TV? And why was she leaning over him like they'd been friends for ages? Last, but not least, was she _whispering into his ear_?

"This is officially crazy," Jounouchi announced, crossing his arms across his chest and leaning back, his head rolling back to face the ceiling. "What does she think she'd doing?"

"Well, whatever she's doing, Kaiba's not liking it," Honda observed with a slight hint of satisfaction. "Look at his face! He's going to bring Isis to the grave with him, he will."

Yuugi's lips were drawn to the sides in a half-smile, but he was still trying to work this out in his head. First of all, he knew that Kaiba had never had any romantic interests in any girl. He didn't actually know this, but if was pretty self-explanatory from how he acted around them. Well, he did have nicknames for all of them, and that could mean that he liked them and he was showing this by trying to break the ice and tease them a bit. But even so, he couldn't possibly like _all_ of them.

He finally burst. "I don't get it."

"Don't get what? This is just plain weird. None of us get it." Anzu's sapphire eyes stayed locked on the screen as she watched Isis and Kaiba in action. Or rather, Isis, because Kaiba had just about become a statue.

"But why would Kaiba just stand there and take it?"

Honda, the expert of all things lovey-dovey, gave his opinion. "It could be that he likes her, too, but he's just afraid to show it. The sad thing is that if you started doing that to girl, she'd probably turn and slap you silly."

Anzu glared at Honda for a moment. "Not all girls would do that, Honda. Only people who couldn't understand the meaning of friendship if their lives depended on it."

The blonde teen closed his eyes in thought, which was made hard as he rarely did this. "You know that they could just be making this up?"

"No way, it looks too real," Honda said pointedly, not even considering the idea.

"Just because it _looks_ real doesn't mean it is, All-Mighty Smart One," Jounouchi retorted standing up and grasping the wafer-thin remote control. "Now, let's forget this nonsense and watch some cartoons!" Singing these words, he flipped it to a different channel where they were airing a show that had a dog chasing an armored mailman down the road.

Yuugi loved the light-heartedness of his companion, but he couldn't understand the whole thing.

_((Mou Hitori no Boku...I don't see how it could've happened. Why would Kaiba just stand there and let Isis slobber all over him like that?))_

-_I wouldn't call that 'slobbering'. Girls fawn over him all the time. We must forget about it and move on. After all, it is none of our business._-

_((But he didn't do anything about it! It's not like him. If Anzu just started hugging him he would've threatened to burn her hair...Or something.))_

Yuugi could've sworn that Yami had muttered through their mind link, "Kids and their violent thoughts nowadays."

-_I am begging you to forget this. It is nothing but something today's media brings up to cause commotion and interest._-

_((Atleast let me bring this up around Kaiba?))_

-_If you end up in the hospital, it's not my fault._- Yami's voice was spiced with humor, a tone that Yuugi never heard from him.

Anzu stood up, rubbing her knee lightly to reduce the itching on it. Must've been her wool skirt rubbing against it while she sat.

"I should get going now," she declared, removing her purse from the floor and slinging over her shoulder. "Ja ne!"

"Ja," the remaining members of their small group chanted as she exited the room.

"I still think this is nuts." Jounouchi's voice reverberated down the hall. The digital sounds of a mailman whacking the dog with a mailbag could also be heard

- - - - -

Back at Kaiba Corp where Kaiba and Isis were frozen together, the camera man head left, already filming enough for the world to see how romantically inclined Kaiba was.

Kaiba, however, was rather angry and disappointed at himself for letting Isis get that far as to start showing signs of affection for him right infront of his whole committee. He also felt rather foolish, but any more and he would break his 'feelings meter'. Kaiba could only stand so much emotion before he broke like an exploding alarm clock.

"Get. Off. Me." He growled through clenched teeth at the woman who was embracing him still.

"I'm not letting you go. I'm still enjoying what I have worked for." Isis swept away from of the stray hair from his ear.

Kaiba's patience grew thin, a vein clearly ready to burst in his temple, it was throbbing like mad. "Fine. I'll give you two seconds to enjoy it." He counted in his head silently and atleast threw Isis off and jerked away from her groping arms. "Look, I have no connection to you whatsoever! You hear me?"

The crystal clear blue eyes that had once displayed so much affection for him turned hard and cold. The hurt showed so well that he almost regretted saying those words. "After all this time? Don't you feel anything?"

He was about to say something that would imprint the word 'heartless freak' onto his forehead forever, but decided against him. Now that he thought about it, what had Isis done to him other than hand him a powerful card that he soon lost, force memories of his ancient past into his head, and try and get closer to him? The lasting damage he had done to Isis by hurting her spirit was more than anything she had done to him. When it all added up, he knew she would be the victor and she deserved to win.

But Kaiba wasn't going to display his weaknesses for all to see. He wasn't one to serve justice. Just to look for power that he believed he was entitled to.

"I feel nothing," he replied shortly, averting his gaze from her darkening eyes. As cold and power-hungry as he might seem, Kaiba couldn't bear to see someone in so much mental pain. Especially if he caused it. In all his years, no one had shown as much as a speck of whole-hearted emotion infront of him because they feared being hurt by him.

"Tell me, Kaiba. I want to know."

He felt his heart racing as it did before, his pulse rising to dangerous levels. What was wrong with him? The palms of his hands grew sweaty, which he desperately tried to rub away onto his pants.

The room became still and silent, except for the distant rumble of helicopter blades cutting through the air and Isis's restless foot tapping as she awaited the answer.

For better or worse.


	14. Ensnared in a Plot

**Lightning-Dono**: Last night I thought up something that would make this fanfic more drama. :) But what I have in store for the direction of this fanfic will have to wait until later chapters. Then again, I might change the idea because at the same time it's too angst.

I decided to begin this chapter with the translated lyrics of the song "Sayonara Solitaire" from Chrono Crusade.

Answer to the Review 

**mariko** – Bah, I hate cliffies, too. -.- Thanks for the compliment, and yes, I shall keep writing! Dun dun dun...

-----

_It's because I love you so much that I hurt you, that I'm so confused_

_Coming close to your cold cheek, my soul was born_

_I always want to see you right away_

_I love you so much I can't speak, so how will you see my kindness?_

_Hold me tighter, I believe in your warm heart_

_Farewell, solitaire, to tomorrow_

_Because I'm so small, I give everything, but it's not enough_

_This hand, which can't hide anything at all, I want to give to you_

_We still have to see off the white dawn_

_Why was I able to run across someone this important?_

_Holding on to these fingers that they almost hurt, I see the dream that had disappeared into sadness_

_Farewell, solitaire_

_Because I'm no longer alone, tomorrow awakens, and I'm with you_

_Because I have someone whom I love so much, I'm here by your side, protecting you_

_I'm so glad that I was born on this earth that connects me to you_

- - - - -

Kaiba's lips twitched, itching to tell the answer, but couldn't. It was much too complicated. How could he ever explain that he actually had feelings for the daring, tanned woman that stood boldly before him? It would've been much easier to push her right out the open window rather than to tell her that he cared more than it seemed. Everyone one but Mokuba saw him as a heartless jerk, and now suddenly she was part of his fan club.

"You are all dismissed!" Kaiba barked at the prying eyes that bound his voice to his throat. With moans about missing out on everything, the men slowly scuffled out of the room.

Isis finally broke. "Does the CEO of Kaiba Corp, the man that many people have rumored to be the world's greatest duelist, next Mutou Yuugi, not have the guts to spill his feelings?"

She was going for pressure, Kaiba was certain of it. The last time she had ever pulled a stunt like this was when they had dueled back at Battle City, and that was when she predicted every card he drew. But now was much different.

Kaiba felt like he was fishing into the wells of his heart for an answer, but the hook either fell off or the answer just wasn't there.

"What if I'm not ready to tell you?" Kaiba sneered unexpectedly. _What are you doing?_ His conscience hammered on his skull, as though knocking on a wooden door. _You're supposed to be telling her that you love her. Like her, at least!_

_**What I say is none of your business**,_ Kaiba argued back with the tiny voice that existed in the back of his mind. The voice that had controlled him for so long, but would no longer. Reality broke into his mind through Isis's sharp voice.

"What do you mean by that? You, and you only, know how to feel about someone. There's only the two of us in here. Unless this place is rigged with security cameras where the whole company can see exactly what's happening up here."

"Don't you think it's too early to be admitting feelings, Isis? We hardly see each other, and now you're already trying to take over my life."

Isis stepped up so close to him that she could see each individual bead of sweat that trickled down his forehead. She smiled in a way that made Kaiba immediately know that she had found what she had been looking for. Or atleast proof that would soon lead to the inevitable end.

"Either you're overheating and stressed, or nervous. What is it?" Isis reached out her slender fingers to wipe away a bead of sweat that lay fixed on his forehead. Kaiba winced, not ever having anyone touch his bodily fluids before.

"What do you think you're doing?" Growled Kaiba as Isis held her wet finger on the bridge of his nose so that the image was magnified and blurred to his eyes.

"Does this explain anything? Do you truly like me? Or are you just sweating because of other reasons?"

Kaiba's eyes traveled from the wet finger to the emerald gem that was wedged on Isis's golden headband. "Just because I'm sweating doesn't mean I like you, Isis. I would fancy your leaving just about now."

"If it gives you more time to think, my dearest." She deposited her fingers into a fold of her skirt.

The man strode broadly towards the door, a plan forming like an endoplasmic substance hatching from a liquid shell. "I'll be seeing that you catch a helicopter. Kaiba Corps finest." A dangerous grin followed this, but Isis missed it as she nodded obediently, deep in thought. "I will escort you down just as soon as I get one of my men to set it up. Stay right there." Kaiba almost added 'mutt' to the end, but then he caught himself in time. The term 'mutt' was reserved for that sniveling blondie Jounouchi.

Isis set herself down on a chair that had been flipped onto it's side when she had launched her 'attack' upon Kaiba. As she sat on the single leg, trying to balance her weight so that it wouldn't break, she held her head in her hands.

"Why would he admit it to me?" Sobbed Isis into her palms. Tears mingled with the sweat on her hands as she cried silently.

Kaiba felt like an evil tyrant that had finally done a good deed as he clicked down the tiled halls to the control room where the main systems of Kaiba Corp were operated by the ladies that the had so whole-heartedly hired. They stayed on task, and what's more, they didn't stop for a moment to bother him with rubbish every few seconds like the goons he had hired as guards did.

Heading for the man at the helicopter control panel, he turned so that they stood shoulder to shoulder. The sea of people before Kaiba worked efficiently and upstairs was someone he was planning to get rid of that very second. Kaiba felt extremely pleased with himself as he gave the orders.

"Fill the helicopter tanks a third of the way up with fuel," Kaiba commanded. The man dispatched these orders to the people who were busy furnishing the helicopter and doing maintenance with much confusion. He assured the men that these were what the boss had actually said, and logged off on them.

"Why did you ask them to do that?" The man questioned, eyes flickering with the images that he was pulling up on the computer.

Kaiba did give this question a second thought, neither did he call back his order. "A one-way trip back to Egypt wouldn't take a full tank. In times like these we have to conserve what's left of the abundant resources we once had."

The man nodded in understanding as he thought about how brilliant his master boss was.

But had Kaiba given him the actual reason for this, he would never have understood, much less passed on the instruction.

Kaiba gait included a bit of bounce to it as he headed back up to the room he had left Isis in. As he threw open the door, he found Isis hunched over, sitting on the leg of a fallen chair. Why she hadn't just turned over the chair to sit in it properly Kaiba didn't dare ask. He didn't need another reason to have to talk to her because that would just cause her to get suspicious about him again.

"Get up. The helicopter is going to leave in fifteen minutes to take you back home...Where you belong," he added in a quick mutter.

Isis gathered herself, wiping away any evidence of tears, and hurried through the open door. Kaiba followed her, trying to keep up with the figure walking quickly infront of him.

"What's the hurry?" He tried to keep the cheeriness from his voice, for that would make everything sound that much more dubious.

"I think it'll be that much better if distance was put between the two of us for now," came the hazy reply.

Kaiba silently agreed. "When will you be coming back?" Nervousness lingered in his voice for a second before leaving.

There was a short pause as they swung through the open elevator doors to lead them up to the helicopter pad.

"I'm not quite sure. But it will be soon, I trust."

Had Kaiba not choked on incoming saliva, he would've started chuckling. He doubted he would ever get another visit from that lady.

"I'll be seeing you very soon, Kaiba." Isis's misty voice trailed off as she stepped onto the helicopter that had been completely redone to look much like an expensive limousine. Or rather, one that can fly.

"Of course." Kaiba slid back the helicopter doors and latched it so that they wouldn't go flying open during flight.

Little did Isis know that this was how Kaiba wanted it to end for her. Watching an unsuspecting person step right into a disguised trap that would lead them plummeting to their doom.

Literally.


	15. Until the Bitter End

**Lightning-Dono**: Wow, isn't Kaiba just violent? I'm not just making this all up as I go along, I have plans for this fanfic. He has a reason why he's trying to assassinate her.

And since I love music, I've put more lyrics in the beginning. x) The song is "Kesshou" from anime X. It's Kamui Shirou's song and it's DRIPPING with angst. But who cares? The lyrics kind of fit the story.

Beware the mild language in this chapter. It's only one word, but whatever.

Answers to the Reviews. :D 

**can't think **– Yaaay, you ARE interesting! And you're a consistent reviewer. It's nice to have people like your writing. :) At first I thought this fanfic would be crap and no one would read it. I guess I was wrong. :P I know, wouldn't it be nice if Kaiba just said, "I-I do love you." and the whole thing just got solved? Poor, stubborn guy. Heh, drama it is. :) I thought that line was gross when I wrote it. My stomach was doing gymnastics. xD

-----

_I won't forget you_

_Even though we face a painful tomorrow _

_We are like the unstoppable wind_

_I want to find you, even though I'll lose you that fateful day _

_And until then, I'll have_

_Streaming tears_

_Long ago, I searched by following your voice_

_Birth after birth, as waves _

_Our souls once more headed toward that future, toward that place _

_One day you'll finally_

_Be at my chest_

_That's why our journey continues_

_One day our locked eyes will remember that the time is coming_

_That's why we sleep for now (So long)_

_I embrace you closely in a first gentle lie _

_I can't say goodbye, it would be too painful _

_It makes me cry that morning will come_

_That in the rain, we two will hurt each other_

_I cry over and over, that this will be your end_

_Someday our path won't end_

_That's why our journey continues_

_One day that dream of our extinction will become real_

_That's why we're tied to this emptiness (So long)_

- - - - -

Isis strapped herself onto the seat with ease, her eyes glittering with held tears that she refused to let spill. It was her downfall to let Kaiba see her pain. But she knew that when she had, it had awoken something in it – she could feel it in his reactions. His very eyes told the whole troubled story of why he held back in telling her.

For once in her entire life, she had managed to make a man tremble.

Kaiba was afraid. When his sweat had connected onto her skin, she felt the cold from it. Isis had always had a kind of sixth sense for feeling other's fear and pains ever since she had come to possess a Millenium Item. Even when it was out of her reach and it no longer belonged to her, it had left a mark by allowing her to seek out other's feelings at will.

"Are you all set?" Asked the unsuspecting man that was manning the controls with the co-pilot tailing him into the helicopter, closing the sliding door, and securing himself onto the seat.

Isis shifted her position for comfort. "Yes." In the period of several hours she would be back where she started; watching people pass by the window while daydreaming about Kaiba Seto. She almost wanted to give up. Isis knew she'd have such a larger chance of running into an Egyptian man that would have her other than some stuck-up CEO that wouldn't look her in the eye for any amount of money.

But deep inside her heart, she just couldn't let go of him. Pale skinned, well-built, strong and defensive. Something about him had left a small desire in her heart, just to brush by him left her a sense of vague satisfaction. Then again, at this point, there was nothing to do but watch the scenery on the ground fly by her eyes, that were glazed over in deep thought.

_This is how it will always be,_ Isis thought to herself miserably while the pilot received coordinates from the control tower, replying back to them in a robotic fashion. _If only Kaiba were that obedient._ She smiled inwardly at the thought, but quickly erased it from her mind. A man with no soul of his own was nothing but a slave and Isis believed in purity and justice.

It was a few hours when suddenly the helicopter took a great lunge forward through the air. Isis was jerked completely out of seat, hitting her head lightly on the pilot's seat infront of her.

"You okay back there?" The co-pilot anxiously inquired, recovering from the sudden movement with much difficulty.

"I'm fine," Isis assured him, wondering what in the world that could've been. If she hadn't known any better, she would've assumed that they had run into a mountain, but the pilot looked experienced and sharp. He didn't seem like one to start trying to take wild risks.

Then again, over the years, Isis had learned that looks were deceiving. The outer appearance couldn't matter less.

"My God! The fuel is just about to run out!" The pilot shouted, pressing what seemed like random buttons on the panel, screaming, "Mayday! Mayday!" Into his headset.

This snapped Isis out of her daze immediately. Her eyes became the size of two ripe watermelons. "We're going to crash!?" She shrieked. As these words escaped her throat, the helicopter started taking stuttering lurches forward through the air. Isis could've sworn that her brain was getting jiggled out of place from all of this. She no longer felt secure about the world around her. It was a cruel world out there. And there was no escaping the truth.

"Did you check the fuel meter before we left?" Isis interrogated quickly before searching the compartment beneath the seat next to her. She was able to lift it up to reveal a small storage area underneath. Searching for parachutes in a panicked way, she kept her ears open above the racket from the engine to hear the pilot's reply.

"It was a third of the way filled!" He yelled to her over the raucous noise. It sounded like the whole helicopter was falling apart and loose parts were banging against each other in the engine.

Isis's heart seemed to try and beat it's way out of her chest. Why would a prospering company like Kaiba Corporation have a tank partially filled? Either Kaiba was either very ignorant or very stupid to endanger passenger lives by sending them off on a tank that wasn't even half full.

Suddenly it struck her. This was all part of a plan to rid her very image from his memory. He was trying to do indirect murder, and he did a very good job of this. But why was he making his pilots suffer just for her?

"Dammit! You heartless jerk!" Isis screeched, tears spilling from her eyes that had held back a river's worth of salty substance.

The pilots were clearly in confusion as they watched her fumbling madly through the items in the compartment. This didn't stop Isis from screaming, though. She just couldn't believe that in a few mere moments her life would come to an end. Everything she had ever worked for wouldn't even matter anymore because she would be lying in a wreck somewhere in a place she had never even seen. What would that money spent to have Mokuba fly her up to get to Kaiba be now? She could never get it back or see it again. And her crazed ranting while she screamed out all the feelings she had kept dormant within her for the past years.

"I _LOVED _YOU!" Isis yelled above the consistent rattling. "I DID ALL OF THAT FOR NOTHING! NOW I'M GOING TO DIE AND YOU'LL NEVER SEE ME AGAIN! ARE YOU HAPPY, KAIBA? ARE YOU?"

"Miss...Miss...Calm down." The co-pilot timidly touched her shoulder to pat her, but the situation seemed very awkward. Isis was going insane and the co-pilot was too afraid to approach her. He was about to call it quits when Isis finally calmed, having saying those few lines. She collapsed tiredly onto the seat, her limp hands letting go of the items she held.

_If he doesn't care, I won't care either,_ she told herself mentally, even though with every slowing stutter her heart seemed close to bursting. Isis couldn't believe herself. What could a man like Kaiba Seto ever want with her? All she had ever done was bug him, tell him about a pass that he wasn't even interested in knowing. Had she known that peace would've been restored anyway, she would've have wasted moments of her precious life telling him about it.

_Now is not the time to regret. _Isis wished she could just accept that she had done what she could and stop pitying herself. It was time to take some action.

"The control tower isn't responding..." The pilot dropped his headset as it slipped from his ears, landing on the rubber mat infront of him with a dull thud. "This is it."

The last thing Isis heard was a big booming sound followed by yells of agony before she passed out completely.


	16. Eye to Eye

**Lightning-Dono**: Hmmm...Things are about to grow between Isis and Kaiba from this point on. :) Be it hatred or love, it grows.

-----

Everything had been under control. Kaiba had carried out one of the best orders in his whole entire lifetime. But even so, he felt a sudden decline in his once growing enthusiasm. Something just didn't feel right. It felt like what he had just done had left a gaping hole where something should've belonged. It was like being a scientist, looking at a crater, and just knowing that there should atleast have been a meteorite there to fill in the missing blanks.

The reason why Kaiba felt so horrible was because _why_ he had done it. He hadn't just commanded his workers to do such things just because he liked the way the words felt on his tongue. To him, it was like sweet revenge for annoying him. Just bugging him out of his mind had made Isis go through what she had.

But even more, it was because of what he had felt when Isis had asked him how he felt about her. Of course, Kaiba was expecting nothing more than a simple, "I don't feel a single thing. In fact, I couldn't care less about you and your lovey-dovey ways." to come from his mouth. Instead, he was faced with the fear that he actually liked her, unlike the things he had believed before. Wasn't Isis nothing to him? Kaiba had pondered upon this fact for so long his head had spun like a Merry-Go-Round on hyper speed. Then why had he started sweating profusely when she had inquired how he felt about the time they had been together? He had felt a hot feeling, like boiling water rising up through his veins and spilling through his pores, making his face turn as red as a ripe strawberry.

He couldn't spend much more time thinking about such things. The man was CEO; meaning he had a company to run, and if he didn't do his job, the building would crumble beneath his feet like a poked toothpick house. Kaiba thought that the company was already at a vulnerable enough position due to the fact that he had just executed his men to commit a crime, unknowingly, with him.

Kaiba thought he could feel the Earth rotate on it's axis; the rough, buoyant waves of terror carrying him all the way to the control room, where he heard something that he dreaded hearing. He didn't want to elongate the time between now and when he would be figured out, so instead of turning and pounding down the hall in the opposite direction, he listened to a playback of the last moments in that helicopter.

"MAYDAY! MAYDAY!" Came a despaired cry, fuzzed by static. The person sounded much like hell was ascending and coming to suck him in. Kaiba could barely hear the plea due to the racket of ricocheting metals in the background. Just the very noise made his stomach do back flips as his chest tightened, making it hard for him to breathe.

_Relax,_ he told himself calmly. _Your mind is making you nutty._ The sharp voice of the man that arrived to him broke through.

"This message was given by the helicopter that you had sent to carry a passenger to Egypt. Unfortunately, it crashed. Suspicions have been aroused that the crash was caused by lack of fuel." He held out a fully typed document; neat, centered, and double-spaced, just like Kaiba wanted all of the paperwork to be.

He refused to take it, for he already knew what had happened.

"It has been confirmed that the fuel meter had stopped directly at empty, which meant that either the engine was going haywire or the fuel tank had actually been emptied. Evidence points to the empty tank because they broke it to find that there was not a sufficient amount of fuel left." The man raised his sunglasses to eye his boss in question.

"We'll take care of that soon," Kaiba replied, his voice not even shaking. But internally, that was a different story. He felt like his whole system was shutting down as he drew up a chair weakly and collapsed onto it, holding his head.

The last person he had ever wanted to see came running up to him from a room down the hall.

"'Niisama!" Mokuba cried, skidding infront of Kaiba, regaining his balance, and stumbling over to his brother.

"...What?" Groaned Kaiba, turning towards the wide-eyed pre-teen before him.

Mokuba cleared his throat. "It has been reported that the pilot and the passenger of the said crashed helicopter survived, but the co-pilot was later rushed to the emergency room of a hospital in Saudi Arabia, but later passed away." The boy paused to sniff up a tear. "The pilot and passenger are still in critical condition, but experienced doctors say that they will make it." Mokuba looked up at his brother, who was weary and slumped over in an unusually lazy position.

"Good. Send the family of the co-pilot a bouquet of red roses and a card to inform them of his death. I'll make sure that the pilot and passenger are fine by paying them a brief visit." Kaiba displayed a grim smile and sent his brother on his way.

- - - - -

She was lost in a mess of white, soft blanket. Surrounded by tangled wires that threatened to strangle her. But she couldn't let them! Flailing her arms, she thrashed at the things that were delaying the inescapable. Isis partially knew that she would be dead in a matter of time. Why else would they be placing white blankets over her and connecting her bloodstream to wires where they inserted salty fluid to sustain her body's chemical needs.

Isis opened her eyes to appear in a whitewashed world. The flickering lights from a TV flashed around the room, soft music projecting from the black box. So she wasn't gone from this world. Not yet. And even if she was, this was the last place she would've chose to have been.

The unmoving air smelled of medicines and sickness while a dull buzz resounded in the background from machinery that were being used by doctors to test certain things. The room was confined, sheets strewn across the floor from beds that were being cleaned by maids. People lay on the beds beside hers, either in deep slumber or propped up on pillows, watching the aliens skip around on colorful clouds of rainbow on the TV. Certainly there was something better on, but Isis understood the use of a peaceful, kiddy show. It prevented tension from patients and kept them from overreacting to their present condition.

"Nnh," Isis groaned, just for the heck of it. Apparently, the nurses were deaf and walked by without even noticing that was sitting up, supported by her elbows. Suddenly, a sharp pain grew in her side, forcing her back down, whimpering in pain, trying to mute the throbbing ache by clutching her side. For some reason, her side was as hard as plastic, which frightened her out of her wits until she pulled back the sheets and noticed the thick bandaging.

Finally, a nurse that was dressed in a light pink gown with badges and a white jacket worn over it was attentive enough to notice that Isis was awake.'

"Ah, new patient, eh?" Her accent was nothing close to that of...Where was she, anyway?

"Where am I?" Isis asked.

"You are at a hospital in Saudi Arabia." It was a British accent for certain. Her light brown hair fanned out around her as she rushed to Isis's side to help the woman up. "You were found in a helicopter wreck reported earlier today. Luckily we found you or you would've bled to death. Imagine – a piece of metal _this big_-," the nurse indicated by using huge arm gestures, supposedly measuring out an imaginary fragment of metal. "-piercing your side! They thought you were done for, but I insisted."

"What a suck up," Isis muttered angrily. She didn't need anyone boasting for believing she was alive after suffering that horrible ordeal. Just the knowledge that her love had tried to kill her was too great for Isis's fragile mind to handle.

The nurse was distracted for a split second. "Huh? What was that?"

Isis returned to her original, semi-innocent personality. "Nothing. Just saying 'Suck it all up'. My brother used to say it whenever we had to endure something that inflicted extreme frustration." She smiled in a fake cheery way.

"Oh." The nurse seemed a little puzzled, but she let it go. "Anything you would like to drink? Juice?"

"Water will do."

The young, long-haired lady before her seemed a little startled to hear a patient refuse sugared drinks. They were good for keeping energy levels up, but with what she was hearing from Isis now, perhaps sugarless drinks were much preferred.

Isis let out a sigh through her nose. "I hope you're enjoying your triumph, Kaiba." Kaiba had every right to be celebrating right now, but Isis couldn't see why. If she were him, she would've been moving several thousand miles away to live under a new identity so the cops couldn't find her. But even so, he was world renowned Kaiba Seto, creator of duel disks and technology surrounding the area of Duel Monsters. The man with the unsurpassable knowledge of how to create life-like holograms of monsters and allow humans to experience virtual reality. Many people already had their eye on him and would certainly notice it if he just suddenly neglected all work and flown off a different country to sit on the street and play pretend.

Much to Isis's amusement, the nurse tripped on a loose floor tile on the way back. She suppressed a laugh as the lady kindly handed her the glass that was now half-filled with water.

"Sorry about that," she apologized, worry fluctuating her voice.

Isis was about to reply, in an attitude-filled voice, "Don't be sorry, just don't do it!" But her condition held her back. Besides, Isis realized that was immature and insensible, so she accepted the apology and took the glass of iced water. Condensation built up on the side of the glass as she leaned against the stack pillows behind her to watch the presently speaking aliens. They were conversing in another language, so it all sounded like random gibberish to her.

Then, the door swung open easily and there, in the middle of the doorway, stood a tall man, clutching the handle of his briefcase like his life depended on it. His eyes were cold, but hinted of worry and regret.

Her hands nearly slipped to drop the glass and spill the freezing water all over her front. What in the world was he doing there? It wasn't everyday that you attempt to injure someone else, or cripple them for life, and come to say sorry. But knowing the person standing there, he probably wasn't coming to hand out roses and donate to the coat charity in the lobby. He probably came for something more.

"Konnichi wa, Isis."

For once in their entire lifetimes, Kaiba's eyes beamed right into Isis's. Finally they were seeing.

Eye to eye.


	17. Emotion

**Lightning-Dono:** Whooo! The chapters are in sync with then days. Crazy, ne? I think I might make this fanfic longer than I intended when I first planned it all out. I think I might make it a two-part type thing. It's never worked well in the past, but it'll do. xD

This chapter sucks. Just to let you know beforehand.

Answers to the reviews. :D 

**can't think** – Yeah...Well, you'll have lots to review now! xD; I wonder if there are more Seto x Isis fics out there? o.o I've only seen a rare few...Oh, and they were watching some children's Saudi Arabian show. :) Nothing special.

-----

The woman wholly welcoming his presence, even though this turned several heads as he walked by. The patients that were able to walk grouped together and pointed excitedly at Kaiba's back. Sadly for them, he didn't even turn his head as he made his way along the maze of beds before pulling up a nearby chair and settling by Isis, setting his briefcase down.

Nurses fawned around him as he sat by her side. Then, that dreaded nurse chose just that moment to shoo the other women away, blush, and say, "Would you like something, Kaiba?"

"Go away," Isis murmured menacingly, gritting her teeth together like she was doing a frenzied dance with a rose in her mouth.

"Much obliged," the nurse replied dazedly as she threw her head back, grinned a sparkling grin, and made her way into the hall where she was sure to show off to her friends.

Kaiba's blue orbs found their way into Isis's as they shared a mutual understanding about what the following conversation would be about.

"Well..." Kaiba started, fidgeting oddly in his seat. His tension and nerves made Isis relax, letting go of the memories left behind in the helicopter wreck. "I came to check on you," he finished lamely.

"I'm glad you decided to." Her eyes glittered with mirth. Isis was near bursting level as she felt the warmth from his hand as he rested it on hers. Surely things couldn't get any better than this?

"Yes, and I was just thinking that...er..." Kaiba searched through his extensive vocabulary, just scanning for the right word, wondering how Isis would accept this excuse. It was probably far from anything she would've thought true, but he'd give it a go.

Isis urged him on with a swift movement of her head, jerking it forward, trying to indicate that she wanted to hear the rest. Kaiba, however, seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, wondering whether this was all true.

"Darkness is descending upon the land," Isis said wisely. "You should tell me sometime before sunset."

Kaiba's eyes wandered, his throat tight. Should he say it? Suppose she wouldn't accept it? He started over. "Isis, I really want to tell you something."

A faint clatter of dinner dishes as the nurses fixed up a dinner fit for the patients rang through the air, giving Kaiba yet another moment to be distracted by something that was unexplainable. _I can't tell her that I love her,_ Kaiba realized. _You can't nearly kill someone and say, "I love you." It's not right. It never will be._ His self-esteem shattered into a thousand pieces as he malingered, stalling for enough time to think this whole deal over.

"You wouldn't mind just saying 'I hope you're feeling better', would you? I'm getting quite hungry and I'd hate to have to spend another moment waiting." Isis's finger twitched into Kaiba's palm, which made his reflex's react. He removed his hand from Isis's, feeling particularly hot in the face as he usually did in moments of true humiliation. _This is it. Now or never._ Kaiba chose never, but it wasn't a very truthful one. Isis needed to know. She needed to know that he was a man with a pulsating heart, one that could contain feelings of love and agony. One that could understand things that others couldn't.

Kaiba felt like he was about to faint on the spot from pressure. Regaining his composure, he put his hands by Isis's, hoping to rejoin them once more, and opened his mouth. This time actually saying what he was intending to instead of sitting there, clueless, and staring into space.

"Uh...Hey."

The eyes returned. "...Yes?"

"Er, y-you know how I came here?"

Patients grew amused to see the almighty Kaiba Seto stutter, unable to come up with suitable words. "Hey," they hissed. "Just spit it out." Some patients seemed to take this literally as one actually leaned over the edge of the bed and hurled into a bucket below, creating a loud, wet and obnoxious sound rise through the air.

"Yes, why are you here, Kaiba?"

_No stalling,_ he told himself. _Don't do it. She won't like it._

A nurse, the one that had been so kindly serving Isis since the beginning of her consciousness in the hospital, trotted by with a tray of food, ditzy and annoying. Tripping over a loose tile, she stumbled forward into one of the beds, handing it to the occupant as though she had been aiming for it the whole time. On her return to the makeshift kitchen, she tossed her hair, hoping to catch Kaiba's attention. The man watched her disdainfully as she threw Isis a superior grin.

"I just came to tell you-,"

The nurse stopped right infront of Isis's bed at the sound of Kaiba's delicately deep voice.

"As I was saying, I came to tell you that...I really didn't mean to send you on a helicopter that was meant to crash...With you on it." Strength burst through his voice, emotion rising in his chest and gathering there. "It wasn't until you left that I knew that I had done something wrong. That I shouldn't have. I felt awful, Isis, can't you see? I was internally hurting when I saw you off. I-" His voice cracked as he felt Isis press her hand into his palm.

"I understand."

_Was that it?_ Kaiba thought in disappointment. _I'm apologizing and that's all she'll ever say to me? I'm saying I love her in another way and she's only going to do that? Wo-_ His train of thought was broken in two as he felt something fall against his cheek, something warm and with a hint of moisture.

It took a while for Kaiba to see what it was because a dark, looming shadow had obscured part of his vision for a moment. It was Isis's rich, dark hair, he realized as she pulled away from him, satisfied.

At the foot of her bed, the nurse was on the ground, weeping hard into her hands, knees adjacent and leaning over.

The brief romantic moment was returned to reality as Kaiba reached over to help up the young woman.

"Foolish...She could already see, couldn't she? I didn't come to visit _her_."

Isis giggled lightly as she scrutinized the young lady, frail and girly, tramping back in the kitchen, bitterly wiping tears from her eyes.


	18. Following You

**Lightning-Dono: **I had homework. Lots of it. I'm getting extremely descriptive in this chapter because we're doing a unit on descriptiveness and voice in Language Arts. xD;

Answers to the Reviewer 

**can't think** – Yeah, I bet Isis and Kaiba always wanted to admit their love in a room with puking people in it. oO; Yes, I'm trying to incorporate drama into these chapters because the genre isn't necessarily humor, but humor is fun. :D Thanks for the "strategy" on how to find Seto/Isis fics! I'll need it. :)

-----

Kaiba had left to deliver Isis a decent evening meal before leaving himself. He wasn't quite sure when or how he was going to leave, judging by the fact that he had ordered the source of transportation he arrived in to be delivered back to his building.

Isis was lying in bed, thoughts swirling like a colorful vortex of images in her head. She smiled inwardly, soaking in internal satisfaction that she had in knowing that Kaiba had secretly liked her all along. It was like finally releasing a breath that you've been holding for years on end. Many would think this type of pride and relief she was feeling right now was crazy, as she had sensed his emotions all along. But there was something about getting to know a piece of information that could determine your entire future like this.

She had to say that when she had seen his tall figure in the doorway that she had been pleasantly surprised. It didn't seem like the supposedly cruel CEO to just pop out of no where and visit someone he had put into his mind set to hate. Especially after his attempt to rid himself of her living image.

"Here you are." Kaiba had arrived back into the room, avoiding the jealous glances female patients gave him. On a earthy brown tray he carried a ceramic bowl filled to the brim with steaming chicken soup. A few slices of bread to soak up the soup was off to the side, lying on creamy white napkins that were neatly folded into thirds. A cardboard box of orange juice sat directly to the side of the bread, and Kaiba was pushing it back into balance with his unnaturally large thumb. "Hot chicken soup, bread, and some juice. Enjoy." He emitted a sparkling grin, one of the first Isis ever saw when Kaiba wasn't exceptionally sinister, and lay the tray gently down on her lap. Isis accepted it gratefully, removed the wooden spoon from it's place and lifted spoonfuls of the heated soup up to her lips, taking delicate sips, chewing when needed.

"I was just thinking," Kaiba began, apparently still considering his decision. "When we're older..."

"You're making us both sound like little kids," Isis joked, shoving him playfully in the ribs. "Don't you worry about saying that because it won't be much older now."

"Actually, I was thinking that you might want to...Be...Mine?" It sounded much too corny; like a mere adolescent beseeching desperately for a girl to go out with him. Kaiba was past that stage, and even as a younger teen he had never had the fleeting thought of being with the weaker gender. Or so he thought.

Isis giggled much to Kaiba's discomfort as he had summoned all of his courage just to say that one lousy line. At the moment he was rethinking this. Did he really want to settle with this particular woman when he could find someone of his own ethnicity that wasn't quite as mystical? _But of course,_ Kaiba told himself boldly.

"It would be grand," Isis replied, her eyes digging into his with deep understanding. She ripped the bread apart, taking a small piece and dipping it into the rich broth and popping it into her mouth, savoring each molecule that entered.

Kaiba let out a relieved sigh, all the burden and weight that had been laid upon his shoulder. Not because he now had someone to share it with as he certainly didn't want Isis that involved that she ended up having to become as cold and heartless as he used to be. But knowing that someone out there actually liked him for who he was rewarded him with great happiness.

He stood over Isis, feeling important like a guardian angel would, feeling a burst of gratitude towards the lady who sat before him.

Unfortunately, wherever Kaiba went trouble seemed to tail him like a stream of bumblebees.

A loud _bang!_ shot through the air, thick with the scent of medicines. The whole hospital, in a few mere moments, was thrown into a pit of havoc. The patients, once calm and watching the news, began to scream and toss their belongings about, thrashing in there cushioned beds. The bang was quickly followed by the shrill alarm of a break-in, warning occupants of a shoot-out. The sharp trill of bullets rang through the air that was filled with screams and wails of despair and horror.

Kaiba and Isis felt like they were trapped inside an action movie, except it was all too real.

"What was that?" Isis asked in panic, getting up from her bed, despite the pain that pierced her side, the wounded equivalent of a saw cutting through a tree. Blood that had once been contained arose when she got up, trickling down her leg, staining the gown she was currently in.

Kaiba was quick on his feet, having experienced events like this before in life. "Quick! Under the bed! You're injured and can't get far, so hide under there!"

Obeying with great apprehension, she scrambled under the bed. Other confused patients saw her doing so and followed suit, securing themselves against the cold hard tiles. Isis attempted to stunt the bleeding that was heightened because of her racing heartbeat.

"Come on," she whispered, frustrated, blotting it with her sheets, which were now stained a dark crimson. Then she remembered. "Kaiba! Try and get under here!"

The man's eyes widened as he saw the hooded, masked figure enter the room and shouted, "Forget it! I'll find someplace else!" But the man already saw him, aiming the barrel someone around Kaiba's chest.

Kaiba whipped out his duel disk, dodging the bullets that passed by him to go through his flowing coat that hindered him so much. Removing it and tossing it angrily off to the side to shield Isis's face from underneath the bed. The figure looked strangely familiar. Fairly tall and he could see that he was clearly neatly shaven.

A crosshair system was activated on the weapon to enable the user to see exactly where they were aiming. The user squinted, adjusting the gun slightly. Kaiba had no clue was model it was exactly, but usual guns weren't equipped with the crosshair option. The red 'x' lingered around the approximate area of Kaiba's heart.

He drew a couple of cards from his deck searching and stepping off the side. Slipping one into his duel disk, Kaiba yelled, "I summon forth the Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

The monstrous hologram filled the room with its massive body, roaring loudly and blowing back the hood of the man, who attempted to hold it back against the pressure of air pressing against him.

"Heh. I know much about Duel Monsters, Seto...This is only a hologram playing pretend as a real monster. Very creative technology I once thought. But as of now, we are not in a duel. I am here to take your life and that I shall get." Even the gruff voice that the man so foolishly tried to disguise became clear to Kaiba. The thudding of his ticker got in the way, pounding into his ear. He could hear nothing but the rush of blood inside his head as he frantically tried to remember who this person was.

As he did, a jet of silver shot by him. The man was wielding a laser gun, one of the few of it's kind. Kaiba was quietly impressed as he stepped mildly out of the way. Isis let out a small squeaky sound that she quickly muffled with her partially scarlet bed sheet. The man also had a regular machine gun with him, but he had left it someplace else to be able to use his laser gun. Kaiba suddenly had a short flashback triggered by the blinding light of a few more laser shots that went directly through his holographic dragon, causing it to flicker dangerously. He put all his faith that his dragon wouldn't go out, leaving him exposed for all attacks.

_"Just a simple chess match?" The tall man laughed out loud, prodding the defiant brown-haired boy on the shoulder. "You've got guts. All right. If I win, I leave childless. But if you win, I'll adopt both you and the little black-haired kid next to you."_

"Gozaburo!" Kaiba shouted at the man, who was in the process of aiming his gun at Kaiba's duel disk. Or atleast trying to. "Show yourself!"

"...His stepfather?" Isis muttered, her eyes narrowing in mute suspicion. "I don't understand."

The figure removed his hood, throwing aside his dark mask, snapping the thick rubber band that bound it to his face. "So you've discovered the truth," Gozaburo hissed, a poisonous venom dripping from his voice, striking profound fear in Isis's heart. "See what I have become?"

Kaiba observed his stepfather. He certainly held himself differently. Gozaburo had developed a crippled limp that held him back from he usually might've done, which included lunging on Kaiba and robbing him of all possessions. His physical stature in general wasn't doing well. His once broad, pointy shoulders had grown dull and weak, causing him to look older than the once violent man he used to be. There was a thin scar extending from his upper cheek to his forehead, which didn't provide as an attraction magnet at all.

"You certainly have improved your looks," Kaiba smirked, waving a hand towards the bushy eyebrows that threatened to devour his eyes completely. Kaiba felt that it was only a matter of time before whoever was working in the hospital would haul him out into the jail that was conveniently a few blocks away.

"I don't need your snide comments, Seto. I know perfectly well who you have grown-up to be after you ripped me up and tossed me out the window."

"That's funny, I remember leaping out a window myself. Are you sure you haven't got your information mixed up?"

Isis practically glowed with admiration for her dearest, newly gained friend.

Gozaburo scowled, scrunching up his already wrinkled face and making his scar look like it was curling in pain. "Still your perky self, eh? Wait until you see what I have in store for you. I've been hearing that you've gotten a girlfriend? Pity me. I never had the nerve to get one myself and when I did, our relationship would only last a few weeks before they let go."

Kaiba snorted, not feeling a speck of sympathy for the man before him. This person didn't need anyone to feel sorry for him. He had once told Kaiba that he didn't need anyone and Kaiba was ready to believe that Gozaburo was just spouting stories to gain back love. If he didn't need anyone, he certainly didn't need his son's ear right now.

Then again, Kaiba would never accept that he was the son of such a greedy tyrant. He'd rather much start eating sludge than live again in the same mansion of this man that had been rumored to be powerful, but then disappeared in shame after being outsmarted by his adopted child.

"Perky doesn't quite fit me," Kaiba decided in a stuck-up manner. "I'd say... Spiteful. At you!" He thrust his arm forward to point directly at his hated stepfather. "Blue Eyes White Dragon, strike him with White Lightning!" A ball that contained power, sparking with electricity built up inside his dragon's mouth. "It will only take a few minutes. Soon the police will come." The ball continued to build as Gozaburo was frothing at the mouth like a man suffering from a severe case of rabies.

"I have broken into their station and disabled all communication ports in and out of that filthy place. They can't do a thing about it," he said, a disgusting bubbly substance dripping from the corner of his mouth. This had to be the sickest thing Kaiba had ever seen. Had the man really been so damaged by the loss of his company that he had gone nuts? Whatever the case, he needed serious medical attention at the moment.

Isis had heard enough. She was a woman of love and peace and couldn't stand another word of this evil that was being said by the both of them. Sliding out from her hiding place, she hobbled over to Kaiba painfully.

"Isis! Get back under the bed!" Kaiba hissed urgently, afraid of what might happen now that he had an injured person to look out for in this battle.

The wailing of distant sirens sounded in the background as the cars arrived quickly to the scene. The sound of officers tramping up the half destroyed stairs could be heard.

"Oh, looks like they're coming!" Isis breathed a sigh of relief. Kaiba withdrew his Blue Eyes White Dragon from the room, knowing that things would look odd if the police saw him about to attack a helpless man. If anyone could be helpless when they had a laser gun in their grubby hands.

"Lucky break, Seto. But wherever you go, I'm watching! Mark my words!" Gozaburo trampled down the stairs, only to find that the police were waiting at the bottom of that particular staircase.

"Trackers," Kaiba muttered, picking at a miniscule item on his sleeve.

"What?"

"He had small trackers inside those lasers. When they were shot particles of the lasers were heat-seeking trackers so they'd stick to you. That's how he plans to follow us around." The eighteen-year old explained.

Patients nervously emerged from beneath their beds.

Kaiba grinned weakly. "Anyone up for a round of doing laundry?"


	19. Dreams of Danger

**Lightning-Dono**: This fanfic is going to be a long one for sure now. xD; Family business with the characters will be incorporated, which means all the more troubles for our protagonist(s). Yessss...I'm sorry I haven't added any for such a long time (Close to a week, but that's still a long time)! Gomen nasai! I won't be updating for the rest of the week because I'll be on vacation in another state. ;)

-----

Mokuba worriedly looked out the window at the sky that was flecked with distant balls of gas, visible even from that distance. It was dark outside and he had to make sure that his older brother was there, safe and sound. He knew Kaiba had a tendency to do wild things at times and was unpredictable, so Mokuba insisted on staying up until he came back.

The young boy saw one of the guards turning in for the night and said, "Aren't you going to wait with me?"

This guard happened to be as sleepy as one could be, and was extremely tired and cranky. "Ask one of the other guards to wait. I'm off duty," he grumbled, continuing down the hall as though he hadn't been interrupted.

Mokuba knew it was best not to pester the workers much because that might give them the impression that they were just there for his enjoyment to tease, beg, and annoy, but he was anxious to know why Kaiba hadn't come back.

Control tower staff told him that the helicopter had been ordered to be delivered back to Kaiba Corp, so Mokuba had absolutely no idea where he had gone due to the fact that they had lost contact with him as soon as he exited the borders of Japan. Mokuba stared and wanted to fire them for not being responsible and lazing about when Kaiba could've been on a mission that could imminently endanger him.

"Don't worry about it, Mokuba," they said in soothing voices, hoping to calm the young boy down. Mokuba accepted their excuses and went on his way to find one of the people in the main control center, the only place in the entire world with such a huge population of workers crammed into one room. Mokuba enjoyed the high spirits of the workers, answering in excited voices as though their work was a total blast. The preteen had never found much interest in the sea of women (All older than him, of coutrse), but one of them happened to be walking by, getting a coffee to help her last through her night shift and Mokuba couldn't miss out on the chance.

"Miss, do you know where my brother is?"

The lady yawned openly, rubbed her eyes and momentarily paused to soak in the question. "I know he was on his way to Saudi Arabia, for certain, but that's all I know."

"How did you know that?" Kaiba had taught him well not to take other's judgement and not make any for his own. This included trusting people that he hardly knew.

"Word gets around easily when you're sitting with a bunch of talkative girls that would do anything to sneak a word in. They say he's gone there because of the helicopter crash this afternoon."

Mokuba then remembered that his brother had distinctly told him in person that he was going to check up on the pilot and passenger that he had sent off to Egypt.

"Thanks!" The boy leaped down the stairs, eager to get to work. He needed to do much toil and pouring sweat into trying to get communication ports over to where Seto was. Mokuba knew that he just couldn't leave his older brother unguarded – he knew that trouble struck wherever he went.

- - - - -

"That was total madness," Kaiba concluded darkly as he helped Isis to a doctor who happened to be in the building at the time and was taking patients. As it turned out, the doctor had removed the thick bandaging to discover that the cut was far too deep to heal on it's own, so he organized some of the experts from around the hospital's many wings to stitch it back up.

"I'd rather much it heal naturally," Isis insisted stubbornly as the doctor gently held her arm. Kaiba stood alongside her, instinctively reaching out his hand as though to jerk Isis out of the aged man's grip. The doctor might as well have dragged Kaiba off to see what was causing these odd "reflexes". "I'll be okay!" Isis called to her lover as the doctor led her through some double doors not intended for visitors.

"Make sure that you don't mess up," Kaiba muttered to the doctor through gritted teeth, clenched so tight that his gums began to ache. Sighing, he retreated to the seat by Isis's bed, leaned back, and nodded off into a restless sleep, waiting for his girl to return and for the sun to rise once more.

Isis was lying in bed the following morning as the first rays of light shone through the window in an array of multi-colored streaks. She wearily opened her eyes, having been sleeping on a sedative patch in order for the doctors to work. Apparently it had lost most of its juice so she removed it, alert of the fact that the throbbing pain might occur in her side again. But there was hardly any. Just a soft thudding pain that spread from her side to her stomach as it growled in hunger. Isis was terribly surprised at how long she had slept.

What surprised her even more was when her eyes had adjusted to the light that Kaiba was sleeping peacefully at her bedside, his slick brown hair falling in locks over his face as his head slowly slipped to place his chin against his chest.

"Kaiba," she said tentatively, leaning over to say it to him a bit more directly. Kaiba continued his deep slumber without any hesitation. After all, he rarely slept and he felt safe sleeping in a hospital. Despite the fact that just a mere ten hours ago his stepfather had broken in, threatening to take his life.

This haunted his dreams, hiding in the wells of his heart, just waiting to pounce and poison him with a fresh bite.

Was Gozaburo satisfied and finished or was he thirsting for more revenge?


	20. At the Hands of You

**Lightning-Dono**: Dun dun dun. I had a lot of fun with this chapter. :) It took a while to come up with why Kaiba did some things in his building (As in technology and such) but in the end it was all fun. I have raised the rating to PG-13 because I'm foreseeing something...And you'd all better brace yourself for the next few chapters because they will alter the genre into something like angst and tragedy.

-----

It was mid-afternoon by the time Kaiba had risen to the clattering of dishes carried by nurses preparing the lunch of patients.

"It's about time that you got up," Isis commented, spooning up some scrambled eggs. "Eat." She pushed the silverware into his face, hoping that he'd accept atleast a portion of it. Kaiba looked awfully pale and she hoped that eating would bring the blood rushing back to his cheeks.

"Thanks." The lips that had never been stretched into a genuine smile started to twitch into the curvature of an upside-down rainbow.

- - - - -

Mokuba worked furiously at the machine that was glowing a neon green, displaying a grid of areas in Saudi Arabia.

"If Seto is there, he should be at one of the hospitals." The blocks that had once been littered across the grid were reduced to a measly five rectangular shapes that lay neatly on coordinates that were easy to follow. "Should I contact all of them asking for him?" He felt like crying out with frustration and pounding the computer to bits. What had he ever done to deserve such a predicament in which he couldn't even try and get to his brother?

Like an answer to his silent prayers, one of the buildings blinked on the grid, indicating that the person in question had been found. Mokuba leaned forward, his eyes glowing with excitement, his nose brushing the screen slightly.

"So he must be in there!" said Mokuba cheerily, displaying a row of perfectly aligned, unnaturally white teeth. As a child he had always received top-notch dental care due to the fact that his brother often put looks before what work was to be done as he felt that if he and Mokuba was going to get anywhere in life they would have to look professional. He pressed down his forefinger onto the identification pad that had been installed a year before to block all unknown characters to go and contact people outside of their workspace. It made for high security so workers couldn't plot against them. Plus Kaiba would know if anyone had overridden the system because he'd see unidentified fingerprints on the pad. Some workers, however, believed this was just a way for Kaiba to gain comfort and confidence, in conclusion inflating his already growing ego. Mokuba thought this was pure brilliance that could only come from his brother.

So those implanted microchips had worked. Years before Kaiba, due to inevitable danger to the company, had spent millions upon billions of dollars implanting tracing chips into the worker's forearms so that in the situation that they should be kidnapped or leave he could find them.

"DNA confirmed to be of Kaiba Mokuba." The screen flickered in a series of bright colors and words that read, "Welcome to the worldwide database of contact numbers." Options appeared beneath this. Mokuba typed in 'Saudi Arabia hospitals' for search and waited patiently, bouncing around in his seat, showing more emotion than half the people in the building put together. The same five hospitals came up, now with individual names on it. The one with Seto inside blinked an array of different colors, drawing Mokuba's attention instantly. With pride in his knowledge of how to work his brother's systems, he selected the hospital and while the computer dialed for him, he removed the headphones from the table. They resembled that of a CD player but what connected to the phone line, allowing him to speak into it like he would a phone. The small speaker erupted out of a small hatch from the side of the headphones and fell neatly over his mouth so he could speak.

There was the crackle of someone picking up a phone and then a deep voice burst through, pounding into Mokuba's eardrums.

"Szachi Hospital." His heavy accent clouded his speech, making Mokuba a little disoriented as in what to say.

"I would like to speak to Kaiba Seto? He's a visitor at the hospital and has been for a day or so now."

The man cleared his throat. "And what relation do you have to Kaiba Seto?" He chose his words carefully, making sure that he pronounced each word correctly. No matter what he did, Mokuba got the impression that he was reading all of this off a strip of paper. The dull monotone voice could've put anyone to sleep, even if it was playing while an action movie was in the background.

"I am his brother and I am calling from the secondary Kaiba Corporation back-up building."

Whoever this person at the hospital was, he was choking on something; either in surprise or horror that someone this rich and powerful was actually staying at the hospital. Or because he was afraid that his hospital would be bought out somehow by a technology company. "I shall get him on the line immediately!" There was the sound of an intercom at the other end and the clicking of heels on the tiled ground of a hospital. "He will be coming in a minute," the man informed Mokuba, his voice growing louder as he pressed the phone closer to him.

"Thank you." Mokuba leaned back in the leather seat, rolling it around on it's wheels.

A few moments later Kaiba picked up, hearing his brother's voice on the phone. A voice he had secretly missed so much while he was gone.

"Hello?"

"'Niisama!" Came the excited cry of joy.

Kaiba's eyes felt like they were falling out due to the sudden flow of tears. Was he growing weaker with every second of his love? Usually he would've carried on a conversation in a manner that was strict and strong. Now he found himself tripping over his words, stumbling along through the conversation like a squirrel learning how to scamper from branch to branch. His voice became scratchy as he fought back.

"Mokuba, I'm with Isis," he said.

Mokuba paused for a second. "I thought you didn't like her." It was partially true. Once you try to take someone's life, you don't usually make up and smother kisses all over each other. But Mokuba supposed that love could work either way. He was extremely inexperienced in the area and would rather let his brother do all the experimenting there for him.

"You'll never understand, little brother." The hint of happiness was in his voice. The pre-teen was suddenly proud of his older brother for breaking out of his shell. It was wonderful knowing that at last his brother wouldn't be a miserable computer freak that would rather immerse himself in computer software than get involved in life.

The door burst open, a rough breeze knocking Mokuba over. The headphones flew off his ears and fell, dangling centimeters from the ground by it's wire.

"_Mokuba? Mokuba? Can you hear me?_" Came the panicked calls as Kaiba tried desperately to hear what the commotion was.

The shadowy, hooded figure stood in the doorway. Mokuba's brilliant memory returned him to earlier years. "Gozaburo!" He whispered angrily, hate coursing through his voice.

"Talking to your brother? About me, perhaps?" The scathing reply emitted from beneath the hood, hatred radiating from every pore in his body. Gozaburo had enough of being pushed around by the police. He had easily escaped from the makeshift cell they had trapped him in. Gozaburo knew every secret, unrigged entrance in this building. He had deactivated every alarm as soon as he arrived so he could come and leave quietly. But he would leave more than just his arrival and exit quiet.

"'NIISAMA!" Mokuba screamed as the middle-aged man lunged forward and gripped him by the throat, choking him, squeezing hard.

"_What's wrong? Mokuba? MOKUBA!?_"

"'Niisama, help!" Mokuba choked. If Gozaburo kept this up his windpipe would be crushed. He would be dead for sure and he couldn't let that happen. There was absolutely no way his so-called stepfather would destroy their lives. Mokuba had no plans on living forever, but he never wanted it to end now.

"_Can you hear me? Is that you, Gozaburo? Let my brother go this instant!_"

"How sweet," Gozaburo said vehemently. "After all these years you all have no respect for me. Not a fleck of regret of how much you humiliated me?"

"_I never humiliated you! I outsmarted you clearly!_"

Gozaburo laughed bitterly, jerking the cable of the phone to the ground and smashing the headpiece to smithereens with his foot. "I don't think we'll be needing your commentary today. It's just us guys now." He released his grip on Mokuba's throat, allowing the boy to collapse onto his knees, breathing frantically in order to try and steady his pulse before his heart couldn't take it.

"What...What do you want with us?" Mokuba gasped, feeling the indentation Gozaburo had made with his hand into Mokuba's throat. This man was sick and there was nothing to keep him from being that way. It was the dead of night and he had burst in despite the heavy defense. Then again, Mokuba remembered that most of the guards and officers were off duty. Only the female operators were taking calls and people in the control tower were going on naturally with their business.

"I want to take your company away from you. For years I was rumored dead. That was how long it took for me to lose power and for you to gain it. I watched in horror every day as my own adopted children destroyed my life's work of military weapons and transformed the company into a place where people now recognize it for it's Duel Monster's technology. Twenty years ago countries at war would purchase Kaiba Corp's battle machinery. Our weapons and tanks were far more advanced than any of it's kind. But that was not to be. The two of you destroyed over twenty years of work! I walk into this building and I feel sick looking at the display cases with your latest inventions."

Mokuba interrupted after regaining his breath. "If you felt so bad about it, why didn't you just have a talk about it?"

Gozaburo snorted. "Your brother? Talk about something that he was ambitious about? I think not. Even if I approached him offering a billion dollars he would simply turn me away and say that he'd make more than that just by inventing his silly products."

"Our products aren't silly! You use them too, you know!" Mokuba screamed with rage that he had kept capsulated for years. Hoping no one would hear him, he lifted himself from his place on the ground, panting madly, getting ready to launch a roundhouse kick that would hook his stepfather in the stomach and hopefully put him out of commission for the time being.

"I know I use them, but what else is there to use? Carry my deck around in my pocket and cease to duel? I don't hate your products, Mokuba."

Mokuba was about to complain about being addressed directly by someone that didn't even deserve a name himself, but he shut his mouth to hear what this man meant.

"Oh, no, I hate more than just the direction this company has been steered for years." Gozaburo laughed a short, halted laugh that was stopped by the opening of the sliding, metal door once more.

"What do you think you're doing in here! Commence fire!" The guard cried to the man behind him. They lifted their guns and prepared to fire, but Gozaburo's attack came faster than expected. He had drawn his gun faster than them both and fired and searing laser beam through them both.

Mokuba watched in brief terror as he watched the men collapse, blood spilling across the floor before the metal door slid back into place. No one would be alerted until they came across the two bodies. "You're awful..."

"You're damn right I am. I'm not holding back."

"What are you going to do with me?"

"Come with me."

"No!"

Gozaburo stuck a rag into Mokuba's mouth to muffle his shouting and dragged him from the room, rushing down a hallway behind a closet that had always been thought to hold towels. He entered a door with a password and number combination and inside was a capsule with a black thing hovering at the top. Gozaburo dragged Mokuba into it, strapped him into place, and locked the capsule. He never removed the rag.

"Back in the day when war was still strong around the world, they would often send hostages here. Secretly I would allow each of them to have the option of surviving or having a quick death that would only take seconds." Gozaburo signaled up towards the black figure ten feet above the boy.

Mokuba looked up reluctantly to find himself looking at the underside of an anvil that was labeled '2 tons'.

"I will drop this on you in due time. You will not survive. Most of the men thought this was a joke and that after being through what they have they would two tons of compact metal dropping on them at the speed of a diving eagle. This is not true, Mokuba. You will be crushed instantly before your brain will have time to figure out what has happened." Gozaburo seemed to take great satisfaction from the fear leaking from the young boy's face. Tears were streaming down his cheeks like a river current that was flowing into the rapids.

"...But why?" He choked, spitting out the rag.

"You brother will surrender his company to me. I know it. I will not draw out your life any longer."

"NO!" Mokuba screamed as the man reached for the lever, his hood falling from his face.

"This activates a pulley system that will drop the anvil that is above you." A grin flashed across his face.

"I'm sorry, 'niisama..." the boy whispered in defeat.

Like a gunshot, the anvil fell.


	21. Aishiteru Mokubachan

**Lightning-Dono**: I can't believe I made that happen. I can't believe it. It was so hard for me to, though. But like my profile says, some things have to be done. Now, won't someone else review this? xD; No, I do not constantly lust for reviews. I just want critique on my work.

This is like a soap opera, except violent and weird. oO;

Answer to the review 

**can't think** – Oh, that's okay! I haven't been updating much, either. Schoolwork and crap like that gets in the way. AND I lost my math textbook! x.x I'm just glad you're back. :) I know, poor Mokie...No returns from the dead, unfortunately.

-----

Kaiba apparently hadn't recovered from the ordeal on the phone. It was six in the morning and he was pacing back and forth like mad infront of Isis, who was still slowly recovering from the throbbing in her side. Forcing herself to switch into a mindset where she could think without being interrupted by the pain, she watched Kaiba walk by her bed for what seemed like the millionth time. Isis hated to think about what he was thinking about; she knew all too well that he was the keeper of dark thoughts caused by his tragic childhood. Wounds that could never heal, and when they did, they left scars that forever crippled the person's mentality.

"What could've happened?" Isis thought aloud, trying to comfort Kaiba, even though she wasn't exactly doing the best job of doing so. Kaiba had been thinking for over an hour, trying to assure himself that everything was all right. If only it was the truth.

"I know what happened!" Kaiba shouted furiously, causing patients to turn their heads as Kaiba threw his head forward and wiped his eyes wearily before standing up, revealing red-rimmed, sapphire orbs that were dimmed with despair.

"Kaiba, don't do this," his girlfriend spoke almost too calmly for him to take. She was severely shaken by his behavior and his current appearance. Isis had never before seen Kaiba so upset.

"Someone kidnapped him, Isis! What else could've happened? Someone stomping out the phone; everything. It all fits together! And Mokuba crying for me to save him!" Pounding his fists on the wall, Kaiba collapsed against it, worry and fatigue taking over his strong body. Lifting herself up quickly in alarm, she felt like her side was ripping apart again as she hobbled over to Kaiba clutching his arms and willing for him to stand again.

"You have to get up, Kaiba. Whatever happened, all is not lost."

Kaiba shuddered with a suppressed sob. "Yes, it is." His voice cracked as he dangerously swayed on his unbalanced feet while he regained the ability to stand.

Isis looked carefully into his shining eyes, making sure they had contact. "What about us?" She whispered as Kaiba' head dipped forward, eyes focused on the ground, only partially aware of what was happening. These words seemed to jerk him back into life. He blinked the salty substance from his eyes, causing them to flow freely down his cheeks.

"Is there anything wrong, Kaiba-san?" Questioned a perky voice that could've pierced any solid substance it was so sharp. Isis turned to see the English woman peering over her shoulder at the man who was weakly crying, trying to halt it.

The reply came. "This is none of your business so leave us alone!"

"Well, sor-ry if I disrupted your make-out session," the woman snickered, teetering from foot to foot on heels that looked double her shoe size. The straps were thin, carrying most of her ankle which seemed uncomfortably packed together due to the tightness. "You must be really bad at it if he started crying. If he had me, he wouldn't be shedding tears."

Isis's anger rose above sea level. "The problem is that he doesn't _want_ you, do you could back off." She was mildly aware of the attention of patients, but at the moment she was consumed by this lady. Isis noticed every single out-of-place hair. Every single freckle that seemed to be put there by the God of Death himself. She even noticed the fact that this nurse's eyes were abnormally large, her nose peaked and high, and her lips a tad bit too thin. There was no warmth in those amethyst eyes that were deadened as she stood there, zombie-like, trying to figure out a reply. Eventually, she came up with one. 

"He looks better with me, though. Don't you think? His pale complexion seriously matches mine. You know what I'm saying?" Her voice was filled with an extraordinarily fake attitude, the ones that preppy girls put on to try and fit in to their own crowd. Isis felt like opening her mouth and laughing straight into the nurse's face, providing that the nurse was to lose her confidence. But she didn't even bother inspecting Kaiba's face, nor did she place Kaiba next to her to see if they really did look good together. Isis knew deep in her heart that no matter how good the two looked together, one only lusted for his love and Kaiba would wish the opposite. "I really look great by him. He has just the right physical features to fit my liking. And I bet he likes the way I look too, all pretty and such. Kaiba, hon, why don't you look at me and see if it'll work?"

_It's just make-up,_ Isis thought, about ready to lurch forward and bite. But that wouldn't be a human thing to do. She was especially pleased when Kaiba didn't even bother to lift his chin.

"I look perfect, no?"

"You won't look so perfect after this!" Isis lunged forward, smacking the nurse right across the face, leaving a searing red mark where her hand had connected with the skin. The look of shock would stay imprinted within Isis's mind forever. The loud snap aroused so much attention and panic that Isis had to tell them it was all fine and nothing out of the ordinary had happened. But they had all seen what had occurred. Kaiba watched in horror as the nurse staggered backwards, stunned from the sudden attack from a patient that wasn't supposed to be out of bed until the next day.

"You didn't do that!" Kaiba said huskily, eyes widening with each step the nurse took to falling down the next staircase.

"I did. And let her have it! I hate that woman."

The phone rang happily, a cheerful tune playing that sounded much like a music box that little girls often had in their rooms.

"I'll get that." Isis reached forward and grabbed the phone from it's place, putting it to her ear. "Szachi Hospital, patient speaking," she said briskly.

"Could we talk to Kaiba Seto? This is Kaiba Corporation's security staff contacting from the secondary building." The man's voice shook like he was about to tell a story that no one wanted to hear; something that was unimaginably scary.

"Of course." She nudged the man beside her in the ribs and handed him the phone.

"Hello?" There was a pause that sounded like a rattling breath, except metallic. The man at the other end had such a naturally strong voice that even Isis could hear with the Saudi Arabian TV show playing it's tinkling music playing somewhere above her head on a suspended television set.

"_Last night, approximately at two AM in Japan at the Kaiba Corp.'s secondary building, a man was caught fleeing an entrance that was behind a shelf that had carried bathing towels for the staff. The man was captured and revealed to be Kaiba Gozaburo._" The man drew a breath, dreading the moment where he would have to speak the information. "_When the guards inspected the room behind the shelf, they found what appeared to be a torture-killing device._"

"...And?" Kaiba sounded so afraid as his voice wavered, his heart sped up. Had anyone amplified it ten times, they could've heard that it was going something comparable to the 100 MPH speed on a car.

"_Inside that awful machine was...Mokuba._"

Kaiba nearly wailed, but he didn't. He knew strong men didn't start wailing about something like that until they heard the full details.

"_He was...dead. His skull was completely smashed by an anvil that had been pulled back up by a pulley system that is triggered by the pull of a lever. We took him into a lab for testing and they show that from the time we found him, he had died two hours before._"

Kaiba's heart slowed. His voice couldn't seem to come from his throat, like out of some strange turn of events he had magically lost his voice so he couldn't participate in any mourning or bouts of crying. His chest began to hurt and his breathing seemed limited. Kaiba felt as though he was taking in as many breaths as possible but everything just wasn't enough.

Isis felt like screaming. Her hands flew to her mouth to mute the squeal that she had emitted.

"_And all DNA tests point to the fact that Gozaburo had murdered him. Kaiba, I know your brother was your life, whether or not you showed it. Please don't do anything stupid because I kn-,_"

Kaiba hung up, holding his hand to his chest and squeezing. "Let me go get some air," he said in pure shock, getting up unsteadily and walking slowly down the stairs. Isis followed like a guide dog – too afraid to say anything, but too sad to even cry. It was outrageous how Gozaburo had acted just for his company by taking away an innocent life only to get to another. Forgetting all pain that had been contained in her side, she tramped after Kaiba onto the cleanly mowed grass infront of a marble sign that proudly proclaimed the hospital name. There was nothing proud about the appearance, though. IT was like any other hospital – beige outside and dark windows that had closed blinds.

There Kaiba knelt, his face reddening; tears welling up in his eyes that were now beginning to get puffy.

"Kaiba-," Isis began, but stopped when she realized was Kaiba was doing. There was utter silence as a sweet-smelling spring breeze brushed by. Isis's loose clothing billowed slightly, then wrapping her legs and constricting movement.

The man removed a flower from the ground, breathing in its scent deeply. "You loved spring," Kaiba said, shaking. Isis knew he was speaking to Mokuba, wherever he was. "Remember when I took you out to the garden outside? You told me that you really liked the daisies because they looked so happy." Kaiba drew a deep, shaky breath. Isis saw that the flower Kaiba had in his hand was a fully-bloomed daisy that spread out it's petals as though praising the heavens and reminiscing upon all the joys of life. Except Kaiba hardly had any joys left in his life. Holding this flower was his only connection to his brother other than useless pictures that contained no life – just the smiles that were in them. "Remember when you took the flower and gave it to me as a birthday present, just to see me smile?" Kaiba have a sad smile to the ground.

Isis fell to the ground, taking in the soft dirt, the smell of fresh grass and flowers. Even Saudi Arabia could be a beautiful place if you looked at it right.

Lifting and putting aside a handful of dirt to create a small crater before him, Kaiba placed the daisy into the ground, burying it with blades of grass and dirt. "I love you, Mokuba."

Isis watched Kaiba fall onto the ground, supported only be his arms, watering the ground with his tears.


	22. Silence

**Lightning-Dono**: Can you believe it? I nearly cried while typing the last several paragraphs to the last chapter. ;-; I'm big on sibling relationships (Not incest – just siblings loving each other in a brotherly-sisterly way.) so it was kind of sad to write all of that.

This is a short chapter, just to show you how the others react to Mokuba's sudden death.

Answers to teh reviewah 

**can't think** – I don't mind the cussing because it's all true! ((sends Gozaburo and the nurse to hell)) Mwahahaha.

-----

"Oh my Ra, no freaking way!" Malik was screeching at the top of his lungs. He and Rishid happened to be watching the evening news that was on, just to kill some time. Malik was bouncing up and down on the couch, in horror or in happiness no one could tell. Rishid was sitting cross-legged on the ground on the other side of the room, meditating and humming endlessly. The humming halted once Malik started the screaming.

"What?" Came a grumpy voice.

"MOKUBA IS DEAD! KAIBA MOKUBA IS DEAD! OH MY RA! OH MY RA! OH MY-," Malik found himself drowning within the depths of his brother's cloak.

"Never say the name of the All-Powerful Egyptian God in vain!" He warned, watching his brother dangerously. "He shall not take that as praise but as a demeaning comment to his very existence!"

Malik was silent for a moment. "But don't you know what this means?" The remote nearly went flying out of Malik's slippery hands as he tossed himself around the couch, apparently not to find his comfort spot.

"What?" It seemed as though Rishid's favorite word of the day was 'What'.

"I might be taken in as Kaiba's brother and I could be as rich as...I don't know! Really wealthy. Kaiba makes tons of yen each year and half of the profit would be mine. He and Mokuba split it 50-50, right? And Isis is, like, going out with him or something! My chances would be even better!"

"What about me?" Rishid asked, feeling a bit left out of his brother's plans.

"Well, I haven't figured all the small details out yet, but-,"

Rishid used his wise ways to try and put reasoning into Malik's head. But usually whatever people said just went out through his other ear. "Now that Kaiba has lost his one joy in life, I don't think he'll want another brother for a while until he can take the current loss."

"And maybe I'll even get my own vacation house. I suppose it will have to be a large, marbled mansion. I don't want a trashed up cabin," Malik concluded, ignoring Rishid completely. "Now what were you saying?"

Rishid sighed exasperatedly. "Nothing of any interest." He paused for a second. "Not to you, anyway," he muttered as an afterthought, wondering how insensitive Malik had gotten. He certainly was happier than when Yami no Malik was controlling him, but it tainted him a bit. Malik no longer saw the things in life that could please just about anyone but looked beyond that to see things that no one would ever want him to do. That included trying to get Kaiba to adopt him as a brother. Even the very thought sent shivers down Rishid's spine.

- - - - -

Jounouchi sipped deeply on his milkshake, shaking it about to get some more in sucking range of his straw.

"This really beats the ones that I try to make," he grinned, his eyes wandering cheerfully around the room to all of his friend's faces.

Yuugi was calmly watching the TV, Anzu was stitching a button back onto her jacket, and Honda was snoozing on the couch. It was a beautiful evening in Japan. From the Game Shop if you went out back, you could sit down and see the stars through the clear skies that were no longer dotted with clouds. Pale raindrops no longer fell from the sky as they had done a mere couple days before.

Suddenly, a breakthrough report came on and Kaiba Mokuba's face appeared in the top right-hand corner.

"Well, that's typical. The Kaiba's get to have the whole news to themselves," Jounouchi snorted, nearly sending milkshake flying from his nose. Honda jerked away in disgust from the noise.

The news lady talked and then turned the camera to one of the guards that had been stationed by the closet door as soon as he saw the dirty footprints in the hallway leading to that shelf.

"I know something was wrong, but we wanted, to wait for the suspect to come out. We assumed that he was stealing money as the world knows that Kaiba Corp is possibly the wealthiest company. Who knew that they were..." The man sniffed back a tear, wiping his eyes for a moment. "after Mokuba? He was found dead in a killing machine inside that room."

The foursome gasped. Anzu's hands flew to her mouth, her fingers creeping up her face in order to shield her eyes just incase they decided to show a corpse. Yuugi sat stunned, not being able to believe a word that man was saying.

"It's a lie!" Yuugi finally shouted, to everyone's surprise. "They can't have done that!"

"They did, Yuugi! It's awful!" Anzu started crying melodramatically into her arm, moaning all the while as though she were in emotional pain.

Honda was staring wide-eyed at the screen, his expression reading just what Yuugi had just said.

Jounouchi, however, nearly burst into tears instantly.

"What's wrong, man?" Honda asked out of curiosity when he saw Jounouchi's face contorted with sadness.

"Shizuka-chan loved Mokuba," he whispered, sounding as though the world had just crumbled at his feet. "She would be heart-broken if she heard this."

The brown-haired teenager groaned, shaping his lump of hair into a shark fin once more with hair gel. "You're not going to rob your mother's house of a TV so she can't watch it, are you? And if you are, don't forget the radio." His hair had been down, giving him the look of an extremely shaggy dog, which, extraordinarily, looked quite good on him.

"Don't make a joke out of it!" Jounouchi snapped angrily at his companion, who was more or less surprised at this action that Jounouchi never used on his close friends. "How would you feel if you lost your brother or sister? Or if your sibling lost someone close to them? Would you be sitting there poking fun then? Huh?" He fell back onto the floor, staring dully at the ceiling. "I just can't believe it. He was only twelve." Jounouchi pushed himself back up into a sitting position. "Who would target a boy as young as twelve!?"

"You feel strongly about this, don't you?" Anzu fingered her hair, twisting it back and forth nervously, as though expecting a murderer to come bursting through the door.

The blonde sighed, shaking his head disappointedly. "You guys just don't understand. He meant a lot of Shizuka-chan. He was like her other side...But younger and male."

They all turned to stare at him. The awkward silence grew into embarrassment. Noticing his tough position, Yuugi decided to break through.

"Maybe if we listen more we'll learn who it was," Yuugi suggested, glancing in a semi-light-hearted way around the room, darting to each frowning face.

"Good idea," Anzu agreed, pleased that someone had come up with a way to bring back the peace and unity between the members of he group.

"_When the hood was off, the assassin appeared to be none other than renowned Kaiba Gozaburo, previous head of Kaiba Corporation._"

Expressions went blank.

"He killed his own son?" Anzu whispered.


	23. Never Forgetting

**Lightning-Dono**: If you read the updates section in profile whenever I update this fanfic you'll find some stuff that I'm planning. Uh...I mean, what I'm might do.

I'm planning to end this fanfic sometime...As long as I can carry out the full story line.

It's kind of funny how things start small and get big. This fanfic was only something I was writing out of sheer boredom while I was sitting at the computer eating Nerds (I love Nerds. Don't you? Never mind.). Now it's grown into something that I want to spend a lot of time working on. From the very beginning I thought it would be something to just fill in the missing spaces of my life where I can just sit down and write something in my spare time. Now it's become what I want to do half the time. I have so much I want to do for it! Okay...I'll stop talking so you can go on a read the chapter in peace. :)

This is a short chapter. Very short.

-----

Kaiba completely wilted right there before Isis as he ran his fingers along the cracks between bricks, feeling them as though for the last time.

"Don't give up on yourself," Isis said desperately, trying to lift him off his knees.

"It's all my fault!" Kaiba yelled, piercing the air with his hoarse cry, his voice made rough from over ten minutes of lying over the mound of dirt and crying endlessly. Isis had watched him as he wiped his eyes, lifted himself with the energy of an insomniac, staggered towards the wall to try and support himself well enough to stand, and keeled over. Isis just couldn't believe she had stood their overlooking his pain.

"You should get up, Kaiba. The end will not come for a long time. You have nothing to blame yourself with," she told him with a voice of angelic greatness. Kaiba took this even worse than she would've thought. He ripped his arm from hers, defiantly gripping onto the wall, groping for a supportive crack. Isis wanted to thaw his soul of its raw hatred and hurt, but she just couldn't seem to do it. It was like she was constantly one step behind while he took one ahead.

Kaiba breathed deeply, but that was only so he could speak loudly once more. "Had I stationed better guards around the building Mokuba wouldn't have died! He wouldn't have! If I had my way, Gozaburo would've been dead!" He pounded the wall with his fist, ignoring the searing pain it made as his knuckle connected with the defensive building exterior.

"Kaiba..." Isis felt helpless, drained of all ideas that had flooded her mind before. She had planned on taking Kaiba out for a walk to shed their tears and spill their thoughts. But that was not to be. "It's not your fault."

"How could you say that?!" Kaiba asked incredulously, his knuckles bleeding. He wiped away the thick streaming liquid on the bricks itself, leaving a crimson streak. "If I had heightened security, none of this would have happened!"

"I know, Kaiba! But you can't go on blaming yourself like this over something that you had no control over! Don't you understand? You were NOT there! If you were standing just a few feet away and watched Mokuba get killed, then there would be something to try and damage your soul over, but this is ridiculous! You were countries away!" Isis gasped for breath, having screamed all this. Her vocal cords felt scratchy, like someone was using a vegetable grater on it. But her reason was crystal clear and precise. If this didn't bring Kaiba's common sense back, nothing would.

Apparently, it didn't. Kaiba punched his hand bloody, not caring about the marks he made on the wall. Then, it struck Isis that Mokuba would never want to see his only brother doing this himself.

"Kaiba."

"What do you want from me?" He cried, wiping away the blood like he was some kind of nutty robber trying to punch his way into a building.

"Mokuba wouldn't want this."

The loud knocking stopped and Kaiba felt the receded pain return to his fist. "He's dead. He can't want or not want anything anymore." He gave the wall one final hit. "And it's all because of me!"

Isis continued as though Kaiba had never even opened his mouth. "Mokuba lives in you. He lives in the hearts and minds of people that dearly love him. If you forget him, he will no longer live within you. Think, Kaiba. If Mokuba were alive, would he want you destroying yourself over something you couldn't stop?"

The pale man hesitated before pounding upon the wall again. Finally, he whispered, "...No."

"See? There are many things you cannot see, but if you search deep inside, you may be able to feel. Never forget your past, but continue to move on without letting go of those dear. That way, no matter what, those you once loved will never leave you."

Kaiba accepted this truth and buried his hand inside a pocket where it could bleed freely until he could find a way to blot it properly. Isis took his free hand and without struggling, he ascended the steps with Isis and entered the hospital. He could never lose face when around her for she was much too bright. No matter how competent he was, Kaiba knew he would always lose against the woman that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him right now.

Before going in, Kaiba turned to glance at the wall where his blood had dried in the sunlight. He had left his mark at this very place, the undecorated hospital that provided a temporary home for the badly injured and sick. Whenever he returned to this place, all he had to do was look for a cherry-red mark on the wall and return to the day where he had heard of his brother's death.

"Remember the daisy, Mokuba. Maybe while you're in heaven you can look down upon it and remember." Kaiba smiled weakly. "I'll never forget about you."

The air was silent when they entered the cool, tiled lobby with sunlight gently streaming through the clear, high maintenance windows. Discharged patients and workers alike avoided them as they walked slowly up the partially wrecked stairs.

"I think we should go home now..." Isis said, shaken.

"But where will you be?"

Isis was silent. "I'm coming with you."


	24. Aura of Romance

**Lightning-Dono**: Gawd, I love drama. xD; You should see me during cartoons and movies when there's something sad and dramatic happening. My eyes start to well up with tears and when I blink, they fall. o.o; At school today this guy in my class had a seizure for the 3rd time at school this year. It was really sad because my friend was joking around with him and when he fell on the ground she thought he was just playing so she started to laugh at him. When he started to shake and make noises and drool, she started crying and ran to the other side of the room. ;;

The lyrics are the translated lyrics from the sing "Sotsugyou" from Inuyasha sung by Tackey and Tsubasa.

Answers to the Reviews 

**can't think** – You think Honda is hot? xD; I think Jounouchi is. :D He's just so cute. Uh...yeah. Hawt-ness right there. And that's a tear, yes. I prefer this: ;-; to this: :'( But I'm weird like that. Nerds are great! I'm nerdy, too, which may explain why I like the candy...But that's besides the point. You thought it was sad? o.o Yay, I'm developing my angst writing!

**Vanessa463**– Yes, I know...:( I'm glad to reviewed! Be happy that I'm updating today. xD;

**Witch01** – I'm glad you think so! And more is on the way. ;)

-----

If there was just one,  
And no more than one  
wish that came true,  
I wonder what I would wish for...

_Where are you now?  
Who are you with now?  
I secretly ask these gifts  
of the blue sky._

_With you, so near at my side;  
But now, you're no longer here...  
With you, although we're apart,  
That won't change, in spite of the promise I made._

_Though we'll become memories,  
It doesn't compare to the warmth of your side,  
A painful sigh suddenly overflowed,  
and will soar to a distant place to reach you.  
_

_In the times to come,  
I've already gone away,  
I've finally come to realize  
it means just that._

_For me, I'd lost my way,  
You took my hand in yours.  
For me, in a smile,  
Your sad eyes were hidden._

_Although we may become a farewell,  
I was murmuring that I wanted to be by your side,  
I can't voice my unforgiven memories,  
But at least this prayer will reach you._

_My unending memories are released into the sky,  
Although I'm alone, I'll continue on..._

It's as if the sakura flowers danced that day,  
Reflecting the light of radiant memories,  
And a painful sigh, bright with  
all these feelings, will soar to reach you.

_Although we may become memories,  
It doesn't compare to the warmth of your side,  
But because farewells are for tomorrow's sake,  
they will soar to a distant place to reach you._

- - - - -

The next day, Kaiba connected to headquarters and ordered that a helicopter arrive at the hospital with a full fuel tank at twelve o'clock sharp. Every worker was to be alerted of his return and he wanted to see the building sparkly clean as soon as he arrived at the perpendicular pillars that stood alert before the entrance.

"Better be sure that we don't have any crashes along the way." Kaiba gave a wry smile in Isis's direction, which she returned.

"I will assure you that with every safety precaution you have covered in the call, we will be able to be return safely." Isis gazed out of the window at the dusty, pebble-strewn roads of Saudi Arabia. The only green she could see from where she stood was a mass of grass that lay around the bass of the hospital, thick and flourishing as they bathed in the light. She wished she could've seen more of the scenery – outside of the country where sand wasn't the dominant substance. Isis found herself turning the blame towards Kaiba, but fought back the feeling. Had she not ended up in a wreck and nearly killed, she may never have been able to gain Kaiba's sentimental wishes. But if she had never come, Kaiba would still be back at his building and Mokuba might still be alive. The net was so confusing; everything one person did influenced something else like a food chain. She found everything riding upon whether she had ever come and in the end, it all lead up to the day she decided to leap off a helicopter and come toppling onto her love.

"So..." Kaiba was lost as for what to say. He had never experienced love for a female before, so he wasn't quite fluent in the area of their pleasures and dislikes. "Anything you'd like to do?"

"Shall we go for a walk?"

If Kaiba was curious as to why anyone would go walking on a road where granules of sand would fly up with every step and dirty their clothes, he didn't show it. Shrugging, he nodded towards the staircase. A warm feeling crept down Isis's spine, a certain sign that the day would turn out to be well.

As they walked down the lonely streets, rarely catching sight of the oddly fashioned buses, they spoke little. Isis had been hoping for a more open-minded approach where Kaiba would suddenly spill out everything to her – what his life had been like, the mysteries of his past. Often during their walk, Kaiba would hint towards their togetherness, purposely leaning over to supposedly inspect something on the ground while moving ever so slowly sideways to bump shoulders with her.

"What do you think it'll be like back...where you live?" Isis felt it was best to get him prepared for what he might see and hear.

Kaiba shrugged, remembering the men who had ridiculed him as Isis sat on his chest like a doll, not bothering to step in and remove the body that held his heart and mind captive. He found Isis's hand grabbing his and his legs suddenly ceased to move. Snapping back to reality, he discovered Isis was delving for a reason by watching his eyes.

"You seem so withdrawn," she whispered, weaving her fingers into his, drawing him closer. "Is there something on your mind?"

"I'm afraid to go back," Kaiba replied forlornly, his eyes following a swarthy, cloaked figure cross the street, keeping close watch on the couple with narrowed eyes. Stolidly, he released his inspecting glare and continued down the road, picking through his bags.

Isis sighed, as though she were lecturing someone that had the most dense skull in the world. She lifted one free hand and fingered his hair genially, hoping to release Kaiba's tension.

"You can't be afraid forever. Returning may be the hardest thing you've ever done...But people need you back there."

"Why would anyone need me?" Kaiba asked miserably.

"Kaiba, you've showed so much devotion and passion for what you have always done. You can't just run away from it all because of something in your life...I know it has impacted you quite a bit, but-," Isis breathed. "But hiding won't solve a thing." She curled the hair behind his hair so it wouldn't make contact with his eyes. "Besides, I'll be with you the whole time. You have my word on it."

The man smiled, his usual aggression returning to his pale, sickly face made so by so much worry and lack of sunlight. He applied a gentle squeeze on her hand as he said, "And I'll be sure to get you if you're not." A thin film of tears developed along the bottom edge of his eyes.

Isis giggled lightly, removing her hand from his. "Of course you will."

They traveled back down the desolate road that had shabby buildings littered off to the side, making the hospital look like a magnificent structure of angelic greatness. Isis felt exceptionally accomplished. She had achieved her goal of making Kaiba recover from the loss and regain his confidence. As she watched her bold lover, she saw that the volume and color had returned to his cheeks somehow, as though a miracle had recently happened.

"I'll never leave your side," she murmured, relaxing the hand at her side.

- - - - -

The ride back on the helicopter couldn't have been less dreary and boring. As they boarded, Isis suspisciously looked about at the controls, making sure each and every lever and button was intact an checked beneath each seat for a medical kit along with a parachute. No parachutes had been supplied, but a full medical kit was contained beneath the co-pilot's seat. Just watching the replacement gave her shivers, not wanting to remember the co-pilot that had been supervising her flight back to Egypt that had landed short due to a fuel shortage. Kaiba took great amusement towards her behavior, which Isis found unfair as he was the one that had created the sense of fear and extreme paranoia within her.

Everyone was silent, only the constant sound of the helicopter blades slicing through the air remained to be listened to. In boredom, Kaiba let his mind drift above the clouds. Would there be a funeral for his brother? He would have to arrange that. As much as he feared the mention of Mokuba, he wished for people to pay their last respects to the young boy who had passed away at the hands of his horrifically violent foster father. But even though this was his only brother he was looking at, he wanted Isis to be standing right there to share the moment when they open the casket one last time for the very sight of his body. Just the thought of it made the blood pump double-time through his veins, his heart pulsating at a very irregular speed that any nurse would've deemed as 'worthy of a medical operation'.

As though reading his mind, Isis brought up the subject tentatively. "Do you plan to hold a funeral or just cremate him?"

Kaiba wanted to cry out, "I don't know!" But didn't. This was a weak response and he couldn't just share his nerve-wracking thoughts with Isis. She wasn't sensitive, but the very thought would scare her into thinking that he was nervous after all and that he would need to be shielded from the images.

"I'll go for cremate." It would keep him from having to bury the remains underground. The ashes would be much neater. Perhaps easier to lose, but if kept properly and placed in an area that was heavily protected as decoration and an item of hidden value, Mokuba could remain with Kaiba for the rest of his life.

"I don't think that would be proper," Isis replied in rebuke. Kaiba turned to stare at her in repugnance. Not because he hated her personally, but he couldn't see why she would say that a cremation shouldn't be in order. Mokuba wasn't her brother – she didn't need to oppose his fairly reasonable decision.

"And what makes you think that?" He scowled, a mood swing coming along.

"In Ancient Egyptian culture we mummified our dead, or rather we mummified those who had enough money to purchase and build a pyramid or tomb before dying, to preserve the body for the afterlife," Isis explained matter-of-factly. Unfortunately, no one could really side with her since the Egyptians no longer kept traditions such as mummification alive after being invaded by people from across the Mediterranean Sea.

"Right," he grumbled. "And I'm still wearing diapers."

Isis grew irritated at Kaiba's sudden sullen behavior. "You know, if you took your history courses you should know that. Unless you were much too stuck up for your teachers to take."

Kaiba sighed exasperatedly. "Can't we just drop this whole thing? I don't want us to start arguing over some random question about Mokuba's preservation, thanks."

The rest of the ride grew deathly silent as they flew over a mountainous region, watching the ice-capped peaks whiz by and altitudes heighten on handy meter by each window. The glass grew white with mist and the cold seeped through their clothing, entering their flesh to create a chilling sensation that ran down their spines. Isis blew warm air on her hands, fearing that they would turn blue.

_What a great day to wear your light, loose clothing,_ Isis thought dolefully, rubbing her arms. Then, a surprise nearly shocked her into jumping out of the helicopter from her seat. Kaiba had removed his coat and was leaning over, wrapping it cozily around her shaking body.

"Are you warm?" He asked, still wearing his skin-tight long sleeve that showed-off every muscle in his torso.

Isis swallowed the phlegm that had mercilessly gathered in her throat. "Yes...Thank you."

The aura released from the two might as well have raised steam that read, "Love," right there in the middle of the helicopter.

Up front, the pilot and co-pilot exchanged knowing looks and returned dutifully to their jobs.


	25. Prediction

**Lightning-Dono**: See? It's getting...a little bit happier all ready. :) Now, a switch back to the ever so sensitive Malik and Rishid, along with a little bit of Yuugi and Co.

-----

The dirty blonde teen gave an insolent whistle at the flashing box that had taken off his favorite show and was airing a cartoon that looked like it was from centuries ago, it was so passe. The art was plain and a majority of the detail was traced with dark brown lining, and horribly colored. It was the most terrible thing Malik had ever seen, next to that one time when he flipped on the TV and right smack in the middle of the screen was Hillary Duff. Swaying back and forth, a microphone slapped in her hands as she sang at the top of her lungs with so much energy he wouldn't be at all surprised if her vocal cords sprung out.

"I told you we should've played cards," Malik said accusingly, jabbing a finger in his brother's direction. Rishid opened one eye to survey Malik silently. After the brief moment of inspection, he shut the lid and continued to buzz. "And now there's a stupid show on and there's nothing you can do about it."

Rishid snorted, flaring his cape with one arm to create a wavy motion that was supposed to flaunt his superiority over Malik. "You know I loathe playing cards with you. You bet everything. I lost my best pair of dress pants because of some random bet that you just decided to make while we were playing!"

Malik winked winsomely. "I promise that I won't make any ridiculous wagers while we play."

"When I'm done meditating."

"You've been meditating for half the day!" Malik sulked, crossing his arms defiantly and showing an incomparable sense of malevolence. "Can't you just stop?"

"You know this is a way to communicate with the gods, don't you?"

Malik grew sick of these useless lectures that no sooner led him into the future than it did to the gods.

"Give it a rest!" Malik reached into the depths of his immense pocket, drew a deck of playing cards from it, and thrust it ruthlessly to the ground. "These gods that we have been referring to for our entire lifetimes aren't in the world of the living! You can't interact with dead, supernatural, or any things of the sort!"

This pricked a nerve. Rishid's eyes shot open to reveal flaming eyes that threatened to burn holes through his younger brother's skin.

"Have you any idea how long our people have worshipped these people?" He questioned dangerously, no longer caring how awfully foolish he looked as his foot hooked on his cape and he stumbled forward a few steps. A few steps closer to the mutinous figure that sat just feet away.

The teenager got to his feet, boasting the powerful leg muscles he had gained with his years of jumping around in dramatic poses during duels.

"You know what? I thought we were to become normal people. People who didn't have to believe in theocracy and to live with themselves as leaders. We didn't need a pharaoh! Theocracy means that we believe our leaders are gods, and our pharaoh was Egypt's past leader! Well..." He paused, studying the look on his brother's face, contorted with pure fury. "we don't need gods, then!" Malik stormed from the room, crossing the hardwood floor, pushing open the door and slamming it behind him.

Rishid stood, dumbfounded by his brother's suddenly rude behavior towards the beliefs that he had been taught since the very beginning of his life. He still carried the prophecies burnt into his back with a hot poker rod, scouring his back like a dooming stick that brought nothing but pain and suffering. For half of his life he had been condemned to a servile attitude through the wishes of his father, who had been killed at the hands of his own celebrated son. Since then, he had grown-power hungry, looking down on his brother and sister like they were his menial servants. Rishid would end up looking terribly haggard due to the stress of trying to prevent his brother's Yami from gaining further power. But despite his efforts, he was belittled by every possible person, holding his bad reputation from working for Malik against him.

"You don't know what you're doing!" Rishid grumbled angrily, instinctively knowing that it was useless to reason with his brother. And even if he did find a way to bring Malik back to his senses, he had not a clue where his brother had gone. Except for the discordant sound of rusty metal trash can lids banging together like broken cymbals outside of the window. Rishid had once told Malik that the best way to relieve himself of anger was to make a racket by hitting things together. Peering out through the dusty curtains, he saw Malik holding two trash can lids in both hands, crashing them together like a child playing with toy cars. Despite his current predicament, Rishid found himself wondering about the durability of the two objects his brother had put into battle.

- - - - -

He grasped the rubbery handles, pouring all his strength into his pumping legs voraciously, faster and faster up the tremendous hill. The wind whistled in his ears, his colorful hair pressed down by a helmet. Alongside him rode his companions, each with bicycles in an array of colors ranging from a dull pink to a sparkling cerulean.

Yuugi and his friends had decided to go on a bike ride to see Espa Roba, a boy that could use psychic powers to predict and see beyond the normal eyes.

"I don't get it," Honda grunted, his long legs moving up and down to power the chains, which triggered the movement of the wheels. He had to work extra hard on steep hills such as this because although his legs were lengthy, their strength was minimal. Honda's power was mainly in his arms, which generally didn't have much use while biking. "What's point of visiting Espa Roba? All he does is duel and baby-sit a few little brothers that are all practically identical!"

Yuugi got off his bike and walked it up the hill. "We're going to see what Isis and Seto are going to do by asking him."

"And you'd know," Anzu added, "If you hadn't been daydreaming about milkshakes the whole time."

The shark-fin haired boy cast Anzu a spiteful look. "Hey, I have to eat, too. I had a lunch _this small_." He made a circle with his thumb and forefinger the size of a penny. "That's less than what I had for a midnight snack the other day!"

Jounouchi wheeled his bike up easily, let go of the breaks, and flew down, screaming, "MAYBE IT WAS BECAUSE YOU ATE ALL OF YOUR FOOD FOR A MIDNIGHT SNACK!"

Honda seemed mortified at the very thought as he screeched to a stop next to Jounouchi, unfastening his helmet. "You know what? I think you're saying I'm fat."

The blonde stared avidly at his friend, someone that could never be fat even if he ate the whole universe in one bite. "You know what?" He mocked, "I think you've got it backwards. In reality you're too _skinny_."

"Well, you don't look the normal weight yourself, wise guy," Honda retorted, docking his bike by the wall and locking the wheels in place. His hands moved swiftly as he withdrew a shining key from his pocket and stuck it eagerly into his lock. "Let's get this over with." Yuugi nodded and led the small party up onto Espa Roba's front step.

Espa Roba lived in a lonely, trashed up neighborhood. It wasn't the most scenic place in the world unless your definition of 'scenic' was a cement road with town homes strewn along the edge. A loose newspaper page tumbled through the air, catching a gust of wind blowing south as though to a better place. A pot of wilted plants lay the edge of Espa's doorstep, overturned. Yuugi reached out and rang the doorbell twice.

"Ah, Yuugi!" Came a friendly voice as a teenager with pale sea green hair thrust open the door as though Yuugi and he had been friends since they were in preschool. He looked around to greet the familiar faces he hadn't seen since Battle City. "It's great to see you all again. Come on in!"

Espa's house smelled faintly of incense and a growing scent of rosemary that choked Anzu, clogging her senses and making it hard for her to breathe. A headache developed and she sighed. Anzu had never appreciated such an aroma.

"I forgot to warn you that I'm commemorating the first anniversary of my mother's death today. It's the Buddhist way to have an altar in memory of the person, which I am quite sure you all are familiar with." Espa indicated the white altar, patterns of flowers and vines with Duel Monsters within them engraved into the white stone. A picture of a woman was framed with a gold rectangular case with a clear top. Infront of her were cups with small, delicate legs that curled out, allowing it to stand. In it was sand and sticks of incense, slightly burnt at the tops. Espa's brothers were kneeling humbly infront of it, clasping sticks on incense between their hands in prayer, and bowing respectfully to their mother. The gang didn't know what to say. When confronted with such a comment, it was hard to say anything back. Only to stare at the scene before you, wondering what else was in store.

"I'm sorry," Honda uttered eventually as they found themselves kneeling before the altar and bowing themselves. Espa did the same.

"She was a wonderful woman. Taught me the art of life, living it to the fullest and enjoying the simple things." The teen have a small sniff, not wanting to take in too much of the stimulating scent. Anzu's headache grew worse as her lungs craved for fresh air, her legs yearning to stretch and move about. Her intention in high school had been to pass and go to a dance school in America, not to kneel on an uncomfortable maroon rug in someone's living room and praying to someone she didn't know.

Espa got up, switched on the TV for his brothers, and led the group into the kitchen where the smell of pork was more intense than the rosemary. Pulling some chairs back for them, he got to the counter and began chopping green onions as though they weren't there.

"These are to be offerings," Espa explained, cutting them rapidly and tossing the unneeded parts into a silvery sink. "For my mom, you see. She-,"

"Uh, excuse me," Jounouchi interrupted, ending the solemn moment the gang was having as they sat at the table, their hands in their laps and staring at some invisible being beneath the surface. "But we didn't come here to...er...listen to stories about your mother." Espa looked offended by the very idea. "I mean, well, we came here for other reasons. We're all really sorry about your mother's passing-," Jounouchi paused for the group to nod in unison. "-but that's not what we came here for."

Espa's voice grew considerably colder. "Then what _did_ you come here for?" At the speed he was chopping, Espa was bound to accidentally cut off one of his fingers soon.

"We came here to ask you what Seto and Isis are planning to do," Yuugi piped, sitting up readily in his seat. "I mean, Mokuba just passed away so I want to know what they're planning. Seto was attached to his brother so much I'm afraid he might do something... stupid."

The boy finished off the onions and moved onto hurling them into a pan. "I can do that. But why Isis?"

"She's with Seto."

Espa dipped his finger into a steaming pot of stew that had been laid out to cool. He stuck it into his mouth and sucked it thoughtfully. "That's quite interesting. I'll help you in a bit." He laid out five bowls and ladled the beefy stew into each bowl, it's rich, thick sauce poured at excessive amounts. Once each bowl was filled, Espa hurried one to the altar, rushed back in, and invited his guests for a late lunch.

"So, you want me to look into their minds?" Espa inquired, sitting opposite from the group at the long, benched table.

Jounouchi took a moment to drool over his stew like a rabid dog before diving into it, spoonful after spoonful, until it was drained. "Yes," he replied thickly, his mouth full of the warm goulash.

"All right." Espa left the room for about ten minutes before returning with a fairly proud expression on his face. They couldn't tell whether it was clouded with fright, sadness, or just shimmering with blatant happiness. Altogether, he looked as though he had recently exercised skills he hadn't used in years, which was probably the case. "You have nothing to worry about."

The group hesitated to take this in. "Why not?" They asked together, their voices chorusing through the kitchen.

"Because one is planning on getting married to the other and the other loves the one who wants to get married to them."

Jounouchi toppled off of his chair.

-----

Yes, I _am_Buddhist, so I know the way the religion works. :)


	26. Gorgeous as Heaven

**Lightning-Dono**: Yaaay. I shall now point out the point of the last chapter. It was to show that Seto really has feelings far beyond love for Isis. Now, I'll let you figure out which one wanted to marry the other. ;) Because I'm weird like that.

_Answers to the Review(s)_

**can't think – **Isn't that cute? They aren't even old enough, but hey. At the moment I set Kaiba at 20 and Isis at 22...o.o I hate incense. It makes my heartbeat faster but it feels like I'm slowing down and I get headaches.

-----

Kaiba refused to see the body.

"Don't show me it," said Kaiba darkly as the gathered guards and medics surrounded him as he walked by the supposedly safe towel closet. He had assumed that he could get to his office quietly, but that was not to be. Instead, the entire hall was blocked by a group of congregating workers that worried for his safety and sanity. They weren't doing his sanity any good, however, as he wanted to reach his office as soon as possible and he was about to lose it if another worker told him about Mokuba's incident. It was the last thing he needed after turning sappy on the helicopter with two on-lookers.

At the moment, his company was the perfect example of social unrest. Workers milled about anxiously, watching the expression of their boss with apprehension. Had someone stepped into the company that had no clue what was going on, they would've thought that everyone was getting fired.

Isis stood silently on the out-skirts of the crowd, Kaiba's coat still draped over her thin frame. No one questioned her about the new fashion statement, but instead gave her strange looks as though saying, "What do you think you're doing with his coat?" Truth is that even though they had landed, Kaiba had never demanded it back. But at the moment, a coat that could be replaced for any amount of money was probably the least of Kaiba's priorities. The workers pestered him so horribly that she wouldn't have been surprised if he just snapped and went mad.

"Kaiba-san, what shall we do now? We don't have a testing supervisor!"

"Will you be holding a funeral?"

"Do you want to see the body?"

If anyone had been more distressed, it was Kaiba. These matters were of no importance and could be solved in due time. The way that they were talking about Mokuba in such an insensitive manner as though he had been nothing more but a laborer really bothered him.

Instead of fighting against the vigilant, energetic crowd, he dove between people, rushed into his office, and slammed the door shut. The sound of an inserted key and a clicking noise followed the silence that had come about.

"What's wrong with him?" One of the men asked impassively. "Mokuba was nothing but his little brother. I mean – I'm watching him and he rarely talks to Mokuba. He had better be regretting it." He wore dark sunglasses to match with his black, tailored suit.

That man was the duel referee.

- - - - -

Kaiba fell into his chair, folding his arms on the desk before him, and burying his face in the mass of fabric and flesh. His right hand was caked with dried blood that he had never bothered to wash off. 

_Why do they care?_ He asked himself miserably, wishing he could stay strong just to keep his brother's spirit alive. But he couldn't – there were too many unanswered questions that he wanted to ask. The only problem was that for so long he lived off pride and flourished in the golden light shed by the people who stayed loyal to him. One of them being his only brother, who now ceased to exist within the world of the living.

The sound from the crowd faded out, presumably because they had decided to break it up and mind their own business. Kaiba loathed knowing that people were involved in any way to his personal business because he found people meddling within it had no right to be. The case was usually because they wanted to bug him, or they just cared way too much.

But for some reason, he didn't react rashly to Isis when she tapped politely on the door. He stuck the silver key in to let Isis make her entry before locking it back up. No matter how misanthropic the employees might find him, deep inside he felt now he only had time for one particular person. And that person happened to be standing by his side right then, inches shorter, but tall enough for him to lean his chin on.

"What now?" He asked, his hands gently squeezing her soft arms as though in a delicate massage. Everything right then seemed perfect despite the hole inside Kaiba's mind. It was like a black void existed in the back of his mind, soaking up every happy feeling except one that somehow persevered and refused to let go. Isis was his barrier from going off the edge.

Isis carefully removed his coat from her shoulders, making sure that she didn't create sudden movements so that Kaiba's jaw wouldn't bounce up and down. Lying it on the chair, she squeezed Kaiba's shoulders, releasing the tension he held there.

"I don't know...But we'll see what happens, won't we?"

Kaiba placed two fingers beneath Isis's chin and lifted it up so they could make eye contact. Tears pricked at the corner's of Isis's eyes as she saw the despair reflecting in his deep blue orbs.

"Cheer up," he whispered, bowing his head slightly. "I don't want to see you so sad anymore."

They shared their first kiss in a simple office, but to them it seemed as gorgeous as heaven itself.


	27. Ashes of Your Former Self

**Lightning-Dono**: This chapter will be longer. That I promise you! I'll stop now because that last line sounded like something from a sappy love song dripping of sweetness, lovey-dovey-ness, and all that stuff. But I'm a hopeless romantic, so being corny in that area isn't much of a different territory for me.

I rambled off a bit in this chapter. Once again, 3 hours of homework doesn't do a person any good.

Answers to teh Review 

**can't think** – I'm pushover for that stuff, too. When I type up the last part I was like, "Wow, Kaiba is so awesome right there!" Now to imagine him actually doing that. oO; Nice, educated guess! And you know what? You're right! It's absolutely true – Kaiba has too much on his mind, but deep inside he loves Isis more than anything. It's like a branch to hold onto after someone's shoved you off a cliff. And Isis is kind of out there with her marriage thoughts right now.

-----

The funeral home was packed that day, even though Kaiba had personally booked a private visitation for those who knew him well enough. Instead, a hoard of people came rushing into the room as soon as Mokuba's room was declared open. It was the day after Kaiba and Isis had their moment inside an office that couldn't have been less romantic.

The room reeked of incense, the stench of death trying to be drowned out by sickeningly sweet perfumes as women walked in and out, pulling tissues from their purses and dabbing their eyes carefully, not wanting to smudge their makeup. It just went to show how uncomfortable everyone was with themselves to go around wearing makeup just to mask their true selves. It was like living beneath a table and knowing that if you emerged, everything would think you were weird because you didn't stay under there. Once you start up on makeup and people get used to you with it, they expect you to wear it constantly.

One of Mokuba's friends from school entered the room, wearing a formal black suit as though he were a certified lawyer. The boy was about eleven, his face solemn and from the looks of it, he had been crying before. As he approached Kaiba and Isis he gave them with a look that made your heart just want to burst with sadness.

"Hello, Kaiba-san," he whispered, bowing to the tall man before him. "Would be it be quite all right if I took a look at him to remember his face once more?"

The couple exchanged glances nervously. Kaiba found himself jumbling up words in his head like fruit in a blender as he attempted to explain this to the young boy without making him shed more tears over his lost friend.

"I don't think you should," was his best reply, his throat tightening, choking his voice.

The boy was desperate, his slick black hair laid perfectly on his head and smoothed over with gel. His eyes were the spitting image of Mokuba's, wide and innocent with the hint of joy that had long left his mind. Focused and serious, the boy raised his head just to watch Kaiba, who stood feet taller than him. It was like standing an ant next to Goliath and asking Goliath to react reasonably.

"Why not? My mom told me it was only proper to open the casket for visitors to see and pay respects to the deceased," the boy persisted. For someone so young he had quite the expanse of vocabulary. "My mom knows everything. She must be right." Kaiba watched a build-up of tears gather at the rim of his eyes. The boy blinked and Kaiba, as though mesmerized, watched them fall.

After feeling her heart sink somewhere down into the vicinity of her stomach, Isis felt both upset and angry at the same time. Speaking to Kaiba as though he knew nothing! It was completely outrageous to her that someone of his age would go about saying his mom knew everything, meaning his mother topped the knowledge of Kaiba. However, Kaiba knew what had happened to Mokuba and this young one didn't.

"What's your name?" She jabbed in sharply.

The boy seemed to lapse into deep thoughts, as though this question required much thinking.

"Tsuaska Matsuura," he replied at last, reverting his attention to her after his eyes had become glazed over for a second.

"Do you know how Mokuba..." Isis's voice trailed off. She didn't want to say 'died' because it'd sound so blunt, so straightforward, while everyone else walked in crooked lines of sorrow.

Tsuaska seemed stunned to be faced with this question. "No, but his death shouldn't have anything to do with opening the casket!" The boy argued coldly. What feelings of anguish Isis once had for the boy was quickly erased from her mind. She forgot that he was the smartest person of his age she had ever met. Instead, she decided to make him look even more idiotic that he was making himself appear.

"You don't know how much it affects that!" Isis said scathingly, arms no longer clasped at her sides but making huge gestures that didn't really mean anything to the untrained eye. She was indicating how much Mokuba's death would influence the opening of his casket by making huge arches, hoping she would get the point across. "Do you think you'd like perfectly fine for an appearance in public if a two-ton anvil fell on you? Would you!?" By now, Isis was spewing tears left and right, no longer able to keep her balance as she tripped over her own feet. Kaiba caught her as she tipped backwards, hands over her eyes and sobbing in a borderline hysterical manner. Tsuaska stared at the woman not bothering to fight back tears for someone that she hardly even knew. He was silent as he walked right out the funeral home, giving one last mournful look at the gold-plated casket decorated with flowers that lay around it.

"Good-bye, Mokuba," Tsuaska whispered before kneeling by a large pot of rhododendrons and crying his eyes out.

Many a visitor paced back and forth, unable to think of anything to do but sign the guest book several times under different names. Men adjusted their ties, uncomfortable with the surroundings and especially bothered by Isis, who was assisted by Kaiba, being led into a calmed state. She took in deep breaths to level her breathing and heartbeat. Kaiba coached her dutifully, no matter how odd it looked to see the once reclusive man turn into someone who could care so much about something that would've meant so little.

- - - - -

Three days later, the cremation commenced. Within that time span, nothing completely out of the ordinary had happened. Kaiba was pelted with constructive criticism, letters and e-mails from people who felt they just had to apologize for his loss even though they probably never did anything, and comments about the status of the company itself. But this time Isis answered his every beck and call, picked up the phone for him, and kept him company in those times of crisis where stocks were plummeting down and prices for store-bought goods rocketed up.

The process began in a place that looked comparable to that of a dungeon, but with comfortable chairs surrounding one small table for visitor's pleasures. Off to the sides were several large machines where the burning would take place. Other families stood by the covered bodies in arising panic that there might somehow be a mistake. Kaiba and Isis were a duo and in it together. They cuddled up in the chairs, Isis sitting in one and Kaiba in another. Isis was leaning over, practically lying down, her head in Kaiba's lap and her mahogany, soft hair spreading across his thighs and lower legs. Kaiba's fingers played in the thin strands, tangling them and straightening them up again.

"Don't worry too much," she said into his leg.

He smelled her sweet hair and kissed her on the head. "Of course I won't," he breathed, watching the machine take in his brother's broken body. Atleast once his brother was reduced to ashes he could embrace Mokuba forever and protect him like he had promised to so long ago.

A man beckoned them over and handed Kaiba a small glass jar that was tinted a beautiful sky blue. The jar was tapered towards the top and contained a little more an ounce of blackness. To the man's horror, Kaiba took it from him like he was holding a baby and hugged it to his chest.

"Don't leave me again," he murmured. With that, he took Isis's hands in his and the both of them caught a taxi back to Kaiba Corp's secondary building.

Of course, after a day of regret and hectic emotions, neither of them was expecting the letter they were about to find.


	28. Crying Angel

**Lightning-Dono**: Happy, happy!

Answers to the reviews 

**can't think** – I didn't necessarily think it was that sad, but then again I was rereading it while I was sugar high. :)

**Queen Insanity** – I'm a sucker for sad stuff, so when they turned to stone I was crying. xD; My friend thought I was nuts. And I know how you feel about Mokie but it had to drama somehow. At first Isis _was_ going to die in the crash, but I thought it'd be too predictable and stupid.

**Witch01** – That's where I come in. ((types))

JellyML1392 **– I always thought Shizuka/Serenity x Seto was idiotic. How the heck did they get together and why would Jounouchi let them do that? It hardly makes sense. Anzu x Seto I can see. Kind of. oO; You'll see what happens. ;) **

-----

Kaiba, upon entrance to the building, found a crisp yellow envelope lying by the most outward pillar. It was unmarked and included no return address.

"Maybe it's a resume," Isis pointed out as she picked it up, testing its weight carefully.

"I make my applicants e-mail it directly to me," he growled, snatching it from her suspicion. The sudden mood swing was surprising and the paper sliding quickly from her hands had created a small incision in her finger.

Isis shook the pain from her hand and proceeded to entering the building, Kaiba following behind with the envelope artfully deposited his outer pocket.

"You know what? I think you should get some rest," Isis suggested brightly as Kaiba strode to his office with her, slamming the door shut, and holding a pocketknife up, almost menacingly, to the edge of the envelope. Kaiba remained silent as he slit it open and shook it, looking as though he were expecting a small bomb to fall out with some lethal powder for a grand finale. Instead, a folded piece of white computer paper slid out, landing neatly on the table. It apparently was a blank card with no greeting, but when Kaiba opened it, everything was a different story.

In black marker and sketchy handwriting, the inside read, "I'm coming for you. Wait for me." There was no signature and nothing tacked to the inside to indicate whom it might've been from. Isis felt a chill go down her spine and she shuddered involuntarily, but tried to make it look as though she were just shivering from the cold air blowing in through the open window. Kaiba didn't notice, however.

"I really think you should get rest," she persisted, watching his frowning face.

"Not while Gozaburo is doing extracurricular activities, I won't," he snapped, crumpling it up and tossing it into the garbage can that was conveniently by his desk. The amount of trash in there seemed oddly minimal in comparison to the ones outside.

"How would you know it was from him?"

Kaiba made an exasperated sound. "I lived with him for years and you don't think I know his antics and what he would pull just to get revenge and a few dollars to add to his count? I'm positive it's him. No one, I tell you. _No one_," the heavy emphasis on those words made his voice grow louder. "says, 'Wait for me' when they send something like that. It's as obvious as putting a signature on it. He just likes taunting you and making everyone look stupid because he thinks they have nothing better to do _but _wait."

She approached him cautiously, lying a slender hand on his broad shoulder. "It's all right. We don't have to wait Kaiba. If he does come, then we should atleast get something done."

"Like what? It's a bit hard right now just to activate my brain." He rubbed his head subconsciously.

"We should put Mokuba...Um..." Suddenly she felt like she wasn't using the right words, like everything she was saying didn't exactly sink in through Kaiba's mind.

"Of course." He withdrew the bottle from his pocket and watched the ashes sift. "I hope Mokuba is..." As always when he spoke of his deceased brother, his throat tightened dangerously. Kaiba swallowed.

Comforting him with a brief squeeze on the shoulders, she finished the sentence for him. "Happy. I hope Mokuba is happy, too."

A light, drizzling rain started outside.

- - - - -

(A/N: This part is a little odd)

_Dark. It's all so dark,_ the young boy gasped in his thoughts, spreading pearly white wings he never knew he had. The iridescent light from what looked like the sky glinted off the wings, displaying every single feather and vein. _Where...What is this place? Where's my brother? I'm scared...So...Scared..._ the boy was crouched in a fetal position in a corner of this new world. Everything was so unfamiliar. Seemingly solid objects simply sank through him like he was nothing more than an illusion created by an extremely talented magician.

_What happened to me? _The boy could only remember flashes of what had supposedly been the end. But what did it all mean? A jet-black anvil specked with dust and labeled a total of two tons. It seemed so fake. Mokuba curled up into an even tighter ball and tried to forget the leering eyes that so often appeared in the back of his mind as he tried to remember. The man he had last seen looked like the Grim Reaper with his hood down.

He opened his wide eyes that reflected nothing more than the sadness he held deep inside. Why had he been left here? That was the only question he wanted answered and if only someone would tell him, then he would be at peace. The wall behind him seemed to be made up of a glittering material that surprisingly supported him, much unlike the ones before where he had fallen through them. Everything before him changed, as though nature itself had decided to change it's course. The ground became a cloudy surface, puffy and like cotton balls. Other angelic beings enjoyed themselves; bouncing around, speaking in whispers to others...But Mokuba was unable to join them.

Mokuba rose, pale and sickly as he watched the scene before him. _I must be in Kaiba Land!_ He thought cheerily, walking forward. _Seto told me he wanted to make people happy by building it and people here are definitely happy!_ As he attempted to step from the hard, empty place onto the clouds, a force of unimaginable power kept him in.

"I don't understand...Why can't I get out?" So many questions and not one answer that could fit the puzzle together. A godly voice resonated.

"You cannot join them," it said. They were just four words but they infuriated Mokuba more than anything.

"Why not?" He yelled, having no clue who he was talking to. "They're there, why can't I be with them?"

"Those who died miserably cannot join the realm of those who were peaceful at mind. These people will eventually be reborn in years to come and if you are reborn you will be a bitter, lonely child. We cannot allow that."

The young boy paused. Seemingly nothing could stop his anguished tears. "Seto! Seto!" He banged against the thick, protective bubble that forced him away from the rest. "Come and save me!" Falling to the ground, he cried. Dark, poignant tears wet the ground.

- - - - -

Isis leaned out the window, a gusty wind sending raindrops flying in to moisten her hair.

"An angel is crying," she whispered.

-----

That had to be the worst chapter ever. Sorry, I forced myself to write even through my Writer's Block. -.-


	29. The Way Out

**Lightning-Dono**: Another chapter. I have ideas of where this is going to go now! Finally, one story I have plans for. o.o

Answers to the Reviews 

**Queen Insanity** – Aw, but Mokie needs the attention! Don't worry, in the end it WILL get brighter. Promise, promise, PROMISE! I'm used to writing on Writer's Block because of my English/Language Art's teacher ((glares at them)).

**can't think** – Huh? You thought it was good? I mean, my writing. No. Freaking. Way. xD; Thanks! You made me smile for...uh...the third time today.

-----

The tall figure carried the jar in cupped hands, as though shielding it from all incoming dangers. Then, he started to do something that he had never done before. Something that would've been deemed 'crazy' by his standards, but that was before Mokuba passed away. Now anything to comfort his uneasiness would've been welcomed, and he was doing this. 

Talking to it seemed reasonably the best way to tell himself that all would be okay and Mokuba was happy where ever he was.

"See that doorway?" He murmured softly, resisting the urge to stroke it fondly like he used to do to Mokuba as younger children. "I-I'm taking you in there...So you can be here with me. Do you know what I mean?" He laughed softly at his own foolishness. Of course Mokuba couldn't hear anything, couldn't understand what Kaiba wanted him to. The ashes were just a part of his physical being that Kaiba had wanted because he wanted a part of his brother to stay with him forever. But that would be more or less unsafe, knowing how so many rebellious members of his company resided within it's walls. The lie was tantalizing – thinking that talking to the remains of someone could allow you to communicate with them in some way. Kaiba shook himself out of it. In previous years he had claimed that fantasies were of no interest to him. Now he was obsessed with something that could never happen.

A glistening shelf lay within reach of the sunlight by a window with baby blue curtains. The room was nothing short of a perfect model displayed at those home improvement stores. The wallpaper was printed with clouds that looked as though they had scattered from heaven. Kaiba stepped into it, a cold chill racing down his spine like a roadrunner streaking by. This room was Mokuba's room in this building, the place where he had slept, played, and studied for long hours under Gozaburo's relentless teachings. Now none of it mattered.

As sadness ensued his heavy heart, he placed the bottle of ashes that was hardly visible through the glare of light. Getting down to his knees, he took one long look at the ashes, reminiscing upon the several days before when Mokuba had been alive, trying to get his brother to come back. Everything seemed so fake and ridiculous, like a morbid dream that was created by a greater being as an omen.

"I'll never forget you, Mokuba." He was about to add, "And if I ever do, come and whack me on the head." but he didn't bother. His brother now couldn't do that and it was too whimsical. Kaiba bowed respectfully.

From the door, Isis spied on him, her sapphire eyes falling prey to the teardrops that pierced her eyes like needles. She had abandoned her post at the window to hopefully come and pay her respects to Mokuba also, but she had been too late.

- - - - -

Spiked hair damp with tears draped around Mokuba's shoulders as he shuddered to catch his breath and stop himself from crying tears that were virtually impossible to see. This world was like a game of mercy, except when asked, they gave none. Of all the obstacles he was to face, he had to go through this. Already he felt his sense of self diminish. It was better to just vanish from the face of all spiritual planes rather than roam around a darkened world with knowledge that a better place existed outside of its boundaries.

"Come," something whispered to him. He whipped around, his neck feeling like spears were scraping against it because he had twisted so suddenly. _So in this place you **can** feel pain,_ he thought silently, feeling less and less happy. _Those people look so...happy..._

"Come." The voice repeated, echoing through Mokuba's eardrums. "Turn around." Mokuba turned back to his original position. Before him stood a scantily clad angel with a halo hovering delicately above her head. Her eyes were wide, bursting with emotion and ambition.

"Where are we going?" Mokuba asked.

"And you're Buddhist?" She giggled, her shoulder-length hair flying around her. "We're going to see the Buddha. Maybe he'll allow you to achieve a sense of nirvana."

Mokuba stared. "And what if he doesn't?" He questioned coldly. The temperature of this subsidiary hell was growing cold.

"Oh, don't worry. The Buddha is kind, mind you. Refuses only those who led lives of sin and hatred."

"Then what are you doing here?"

"I'm his messenger, free to roam the spiritual worlds. I am also the person who leads dying people into death and to their rightful places in the spiritual worlds." Then she stopped to think about what she had just said. Her voice was high and peppy. "That, of course, only applies to people who have faithfully followed the beliefs of Buddhism and lived by it."

Mokuba nodded in acceptance, took her hand, and off they flew. The surprising thing was that a large mountain that seemed to touch the sky with its peak stopped the trip short.

"That wall we just flew through leads here – Home of the Buddha," she informed him. It'll take a total of four living days to get to the top, considering that we manage to get past all of the traverses."

He was silent. What would he have to prove to the Buddha in order to achieve eternal peace?

- - - - -

That night, Isis and Kaiba slept in the same room but in separate beds. Although they were starting to get close, sleeping together would be all too dangerous and rumors would spread like a wildfire. Kaiba couldn't afford his reputation and Isis couldn't even imagine taking care of a child at her age.

"What do you think will happen tomorrow?" Isis asked Kaiba through the dense darkness that shrouded the room. She lay in her cot, a blanket lying on her front and her hands clasped behind her head in a mock-relaxed position.

"Not sure. Let's get some sleep." Kaiba never got much sleep, anyway, so he lay on his bed for a long time just staring at the moonlit ceiling. Too many thoughts crowded his mind and try as he might, Kaiba couldn't get them to come in individuals. It was like sorting pieces of colored paper when the load came in thousands and you had all the colors of a rainbow.

There was the sound of a breaking window.


	30. A Single Shot

**Lightning-Dono**: I'm working on a project but I have an extra day now, so I decided to slack off. ((cough))

The song lyrics at the beginning of this is "Forever Love" from anime X. It's translated and all spiffy and stuff. I'm weird.

Answers to the Reviews 

**can't think** – I assure you that it didn't break for a good reason, that's for sure. I like making people smile, too! That's why I'm so bubbly! But I'm upset today. My mom moved away last month so she sent early Christmas presents and part of the presents was that she sent my brother and I 6 packs of COUNTERFEIT Yu-Gi-Oh decks. I feel sorry for her because they were probably cheap and she didn't know! ((cry)) Anyway...Seto x Shizuka...Well...That pairing irks me so. I've supported worse. I think.

**Queen Insanity** – I know you didn't comment on the last chapter, but I missed a part of your review. You do NOT suck. I do that all the time. I just write in this one because **1**. I'm bored **2**. I'm a weirdo who likes to write a lot **3**. And I have so much planned.

-----

_I can't walk on my own any more_

_The winds of time are too strong_

_Ah, I should be used to_

_Getting hurt, but now..._

_Ah, just like this,_

_Hold my still damp heart_

_If unchanging love can exist_

_In these constantly changing times,_

_Will you hold my heart,_

_And catch my tears?_

_All my heart feels like it will break_

_Forever Love Forever Dream_

_Oh, tell me why_

_Only flowing emotions_

_Intensely and painfully fill these times_

_All I see is blue in my heart_

_Will you stay with me_

_As long as the wind blows?_

_All my tears overflow again_

_Forever Love Forever Dream_

_Stay by me, just like this_

_Holding my heart that shakes in the dawn_

_Oh stay with me_

_Ah, I wouldn't mind if everything were to end_

_In this night without end_

_Ah, I would lose nothing_

_All I have is you_

_Forever Love Forever Dream_

_Stay by me, just like this_

_Holding my heart that shakes in the dawn_

_Ah, will you stay with me_

_As long as the wind blows?_

_I don't want anyone else by my side_

_Forever Love Forever Dream_

_I can't walk any further_

_Oh, tell my why Oh, tell me true_

_Teach me the meaning of life_

_Forever Love Forever Dream_

_Within the flowing tears_

_Until the shining seasons change into eternity_

_Forever Love_

- - - - -

Kaiba jerked out of bed instantly, the crackling sound of glass resonating through the still building that was just settling in for the night. He tossed the sheets aside, placing his feet firmly on the floor before getting up. 

"Sh," something whispered. It was Isis, leaping on him and placing a finger on his lips and shushing him. "Be quiet." He wanted to argue, throw her off, and go inspect. This was ridiculous – in a perfect world Isis would shove off no matter how much they were romantically interested in each other and let him get up and check out what had made the noise. But the world wasn't perfect and maybe what he wanted was the wrong thing. His ears became acute, catching every possible sound. Then Kaiba picked up a sound of what sounded like someone wearing cast iron boots stomping down a set of stairs. Except the set of stairs would've been placed around the approximate vicinity of their door.

It swung open. No light spilled in for they weren't even on except for a few emergency lights that shed neon green light in the hall. Isis collapsed onto Kaiba, muting her breathing with a hand, trying to look invisible. Kaiba tried not to grunt as the air was squeezed from his diaphragm, his heart pounding laps around his chest.

A figure stepped broadly into the room, the boots making loud knocks on the tiled floor. Kaiba knew exactly who it was. He opened his mouth wide, ready to scream, yell, and rant. Anything was better than lying stationary on a bed that served no purpose but to allow him to be comfortable in the dark, cold nights. And if he didn't act soon, the bed wouldn't be much more than just a regular bed – it'd be his deathbed, also. The last thing he wanted to think about before being coming face to face with stepfather was that he would end up dying on an idiotic bed in his building.

"Gozaburo!" He bellowed, despite Isis's horrified look. "What do you want now? I can get you on a one-trip home, you know. Where you belong." He pointed down at the streets outside the window. Bustling with cars and late workers rushing to get home.

"Very facetious," Gozaburo growled. "You know that's not what I want, idiot."

"Of course I know what you want," Kaiba said loudly, using huge arm motions. He was hoping that his voice could be thrown down the stairs and to the workers down there so they could come and get him. _Note to self: Heighten security...Once I get out of this mess_. "You want your company back! Well, you've got the head honcho cornered. What more do you want?"

"Do you think I just want your company? I could kill two birds with one stone here. _Love_birds, to be accurate," he sneered, aiming his gun at Isis's back. She clung to Kaiba's sides hard, trying to stay strong.

Kaiba's voice held strong, his temper flowing out of his ears in the form of steam. He'd had enough of his stepfather. "Do not shoot. I'm warning you."

Gozaburo laughed viciously. "And what do you think will stop me?"

"This!" A fist flew out of no where and connected with Gozaburo square in the temple. Like an arrow streaking through the air from a battle post somewhere that you couldn't see.

A dirty blonde boy stepped from the dark. "Sister!"

Isis looked up Malik in disbelief, yet with pride. "What are you doing here?"

Malik grinned. "I intentionally came here to...er...Ask Kaiba to take me in as a brother, but I decided that it wasn't a good thing to do, but I came anyway. Just to catch up with you two." The innocence and halo came back to dominate his mischievous expression. "Now that I've knocked him out temporarily, care to tell me what's going on?"

"Mokuba!" Kaiba suddenly clamored out of the room, doing the exact opposite of ambling. He was practically running down the hall. Isis had been thrown off of him in his haste.

"My, what's wrong with him?" The three followed him.

"MOKUBA!" Came the cry of agony, the sound of depression piercing one's heart with an indescribable sadness. They found him in Mokuba's room. The jar of ashes was no longer on the shelf and there were no traces of it anywhere in the room. Fragments of the broken window lay around their shoed feet.

Suddenly, the connection was made. Kaiba was half sobbing over the mess, but more of his loss.

"I don't get it," Malik said, clueless, ruining the moment.

"Can't you see?!" Isis asked exasperatedly, something spilling down her cheeks. _I'll speak for you, Kaiba_, she said through her thoughts, as though able to send psychic messages.

"No."

"Gozaburo threw Mokuba out the window! The ashes! He chucked it right out of the window! Don't you see why Kaiba's like that? His own stepfather first killed his brother and then destroyed any evidence that he was ever alive!"

Malik's eyes widened into UFOs. "Ooooh." The look Kaiba gave him was repulsive.

"Get out of my building. GET OUT OF MY BUILDING!" Almost acting on total instinct and subconscious feelings, he grabbed Malik by the shoulders and whipped him around. Malik's torso was halfway out the window when he was done.

"ISIS!" Malik screamed in horror, arms flailing wildly, not wanting to lift his feet from the ground to kick just in case Kaiba planned to shove him all the way out of the window.

"Kaiba, no!" The woman shrieked, stomping a foot onto his long, flowing coat and yanking his collar back so that his head was bent back in an unnatural position. "Let my brother go this instant!" She seethed through clenched teeth.

"He disrespects my brother!"

"So that gives you the right to become just like Gozaburo?" Isis asked incredulously. "You're a good person, Kaiba! Don't become your stepfather! Please!"

Kaiba's fingers slowly unclenched from Malik's clothing, his hands relaxing.

"Kaiba." Gozaburo was alive and well, raising the gun.

"What do you want?" Isis yelled, already getting into the straining of her vocal cords. But it didn't matter – as long as she got the point across then all was well.

"Let me at Kaiba, woman!" The frothing came back, his eyes rolled madly as though under the control of some mysterious force. It was like looking at a rabid raccoon.

"Never! You'll have to get past me! He hates you! I don't want him to get hurt by you anymore!" She took a deep intake of breath. "I know about his past with you. You were horrible! Relentless! At times, you drove him so far I'm not surprised he hasn't gone mad and hurled rocks at your thick headedness before!"

Gozaburo looked furious, if that were possible. The gun raised. "Is this what you want?"

"Isis, no!" Kaiba lunged forward, attempting to grab her, but she dodged his hands skillfully.

"Kaiba, I know what I'm doing!" She exclaimed, bravely leaving her arms outstretched to protect the people behind her.

"Look, if you die just because my stepfather is a big jerk I'll be really pissed!"

"Then so be it."

"Are you sure?" Gozaburo whispered, his eyes hardening into ice. The internal flame of hatred within him grew with each word he said, turning it into a fiery tornado that breezed through him, burning out every happy memory he had ever carried within his stone hard heart.

"...I'm sure."

A single shot was fired.

-----

I hate Writers Block. It's a losing battle – my writing gets worse during it.


	31. Spreading Color

**Lightning-Dono**: Aren't you all just clinging to the edges of your seats? xD; It took me a bit to update this because I had a band concert in the evening. I had to clean my flute and all that crap before it. Lovely language in this chapter as Kaiba's mouth needs to be washed out with virtual soap and water.

And I've made up that stuff about spiritual planes and stuff, okay? Don't add that to any religious teachings. xD; I read too much fantasy.

Answers to the Reviews

**Vanessa463 **– Thanks and I will NOT add Seto x Anzu because...It's weird. Like...Really.

**Witch01** – ((updates)) Happiness! Sorry about the idiotic replies. I thought I'd fit in some review replying before the concert.

**can't think** – You'll see. Mwahahaha! I am unpredictable! I think...Whatever. Isis may die, she may not. You'll have to read. :) Don't worry, I don't mind if you can't review over the holidays because I'll be gone half the time, too. Don't sweat it! Review when you get back or when you can. I'll probably only update 2-4 times tops. Maybe more if I sit infront of the computer all day. oO; And then end up needed glasses.

-----

The ringing sound of a bullet penetrating the surface of something died out before Isis and Kaiba could see exactly what had occurred.

_I'm not alive, am I? _Isis questioned herself, wondering if she were floating along Kaiba as a ghost, upon desperation to be with him forever. Instead, the realization was even worse. She wasn't dead. Gozaburo was. Terror reined her mind like a mighty emperor, holding an iron rod and prodding her brain, making chills spill down her spine.

"...Why did he shoot himself?" whispered Isis, feeling her forehead subconsciously. "Why didn't he shoot me?"

Kaiba, through his partial state of horror, suddenly went quite snappish.

"Be happy that you're alive!" Kaiba hissed at her angrily, stamping out the gun in his stepfather's hand. "If he wanted to die, then good for him! Gone to hell for good and I won't give a damn."

"But don't you want to know why?" She was intimidated by his simple words that meant so much more than a speech about how Gozaburo killed himself would've.

A sound that sounded much like spitting occurred. "He can kiss my ass."

Isis's couldn't just look the semi-respectable corpse of someone being spat on by someone they had decided to adopt and not be angry.

"What do you think you're doing to him?!" She screamed in rage, tearing her way through the suddenly large crowd of workers gaping soundlessly at the cadaver. A shroud of heavy silence seemed to be resting over the ground. Isis was the only one with her mouth open, yelling at Kaiba for his injustice. No matter how much he could've disliked his stepfather, the man deserved to die in peace – not have his body destroyed willingly.

Kaiba turned to toss her a look of dislike. "What are you, thick? I'm treating him the way he was meant to be treated!" The look in his eyes looked like those of an arsonist being caught red-handed. Both fearful yet filled with an unexplainable anger that was encapsulated within him. His angered expression was smothered with a touch of hurt like misplaced mascara. It was like he couldn't believe that Isis wasn't agreeing with him like she had always had.

"Just because he was like that towards you doesn't mean you should return that to him! You-You're becoming just like him!" She had struck a nerve. Watching him was like watching a fast-forwarding tape. Just watching it move too quickly to be possible at stuttering intervals. Kaiba was pinning her abusively to the wall, oblivious of the crowd around them, making sure she was watching each and every action he made by knocking her chin upwards.

"Don't you dare compare me to that snake!" He whispered furiously, giving Isis a face-full of his hot breath that pounded onto her neck. It didn't refresh her one bit, no matter how minty it was from the toothpaste he had used. An iron grip clutched her throat like a clasp that was binding her to the wall.

"Oh, so you'd rather I lie?" She replied coldly, taking one hand and forcing his from her throat. Kaiba's expression darkened, feeling her gold bracelets spreading it's cold against his skin. "Fine then. You're not acting like him one bit. In fact, you two behave so 'differently' that I'm beginning to wonder why you two _aren't twins!_" With that, she stomped her way out of the building. "I'm not taking anymore of your little temper problems! If you dislike your stepfather, fine! Treat him however you like! Just count me out of your futuristic plans!" Huffily, she shoved her way out of the electric door that proved too slow for her and marched on down the street like a very informal saint.

Kaiba didn't know whether or not to jump up and down with joy and revert to mistreat his stepfather or to chase after the one person he had ever had feelings for. The only thing he was aware of at the moment was the thirty-six eyes focused on him and the color spreading rapidly across his cheeks.

- - - - -

They were trekking up the treacherously snowy mountain when the angel before him suddenly stopped, her hair flurrying around her like a sandstorm. 

"I never introduced myself!" She gasped.

"Indeed you did not." The angel's presence was enough to make him become someone else – a respectable a boy that everyone could trust without doubt.

"The name is Kara," she smiled cheerfully, sticking out her hand for Mokuba to shake like they were just meeting for the very first time. "Let's start anew and pretend that you haven't been wandering the third spiritual plane with a stranger."

"I know you're a messenger for the Buddha," Mokuba said pointedly as they floated onto a particularly soft clump of snow that rested on a cliff-like edge. "And what's the third spiritual plane?" Curiosity getting the better of him, he reached down and touched the snow, just to make sure that it really existed. The fact that he was dead bothered him. He wanted interaction with something that atleast looked real and not with a bunch of people who belonged in your stereotypical fairytale.

"The third spiritual plane is one of the five that you must conquer – or rather, get through, in order to see the Buddha," Kara explained gently. "He lives at the summit, meditating. Sees every person coming up the mountain in his mind and judges by their behavior then." Kara grinned toothily. "Just keep being all gentleman-like and he'll accept you in no time."

Mokuba's mouth stretched into a smile – the first he had every carried on his face since he had found himself trapped, separated from the rest of the heaven-like land.

"What was that place then?" He asked her as they continued up towards the peak, snow floating down at a steady pace.

"There are many places," Kara answered with the voice of a mermaid – so normal, yet mystical when you thought about whom it was coming from. In this case, it was coming from an angel wearing velvety emerald clothing that revealed more than necessary. A golden halo ringed her head like a loose headband. A silver bracelet with a gem of jade embedded in it was worn on her left wrist. Her shoulder-length, sandy-brown hair was thin and shone delicately in the film of light coming through a few clouds.

"I mean, that place that the Buddha was saying I couldn't be in. What is it?"

Kara was busy brushing off an icy rock. "That place is the Rebirth Haven. All spirits that the Buddha plan on bringing back to life as babies remain there until their turn comes." Her expression was suddenly grim. "I was offered to be reborn, but I refused. My previous life was exceptionally dull, so the Buddha taught me how to meditate in order to rid myself of the boredom inside and release positive energy. Besides...I can't remember much. Too much time spent in the spirit world depletes memories of your past self." She sighed, sitting down on the rock, legs crossed. "Tell me a bit about yourself." Noticing that Mokuba was hesitantly looking up towards the sky that, with each waking moment, seemed to be getting darker, she added, "We're spirits, remember? The weather, natural disasters...Nothing affects us. It's all just eye candy fit for camera on a film." The dazzling grin emerged onto her rosy face. "So, let's get to it. How was life for you?"

The boy settled down on a rock next to Kara, making sure that she could hear him over the howling wind that had suddenly made it's appearance.

"The only thing I had that was worth living for was my brother."


	32. Amusement

**Lightning-Dono**: This chapter is mostly Mokuba and Kara. It's sweet and filled with realizations and discovery! (On Kara and Mokuba's part...) Kara is an original character that I made up on the spot. She is in no way related to the Yu-Gi-Oh series (Okay, well, she is now in my fanfic.) and I have yet to draw her. She's quite adorable the way I picture her...And this might be where Mokuba x OC come in...Just kidding.

The song that was put into Kaiba and Isis's section is called "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day. I left out a few lines and verses because they didn't make any sense to put into the story. And I didn't bother leaving out a few 'questionable' words because if you're reading a PG-13 fanfic, you should know how to control yourself.

And I don't know the names of the Kaiba brother's parents, so bear with me.

Answers to the Reviews

**Vanessa463 **– Whoa, big word alert! (I'm STILL with that STUPID bout of Writers Block so my mind has officially been cleared of large words. I'm going to pull out my thesaurus now. o.o) Seto will come after her. :)

**can't think** – ((gasp)) Bad lazy can't think! ((shame shame sign)) Just kidding. We need some conflict so...yeah. That was my idea of a conflict. OOOH! What fanfic was it? I wanna reeeeadd!

-----

Kara's face became stony. "What happened to him?"

"He's...Down on earth...Somewhere. Probably having a lot of fun with his girlfriend." Mokuba grinned sheepishly. "He used to hate her, too."

The girl beside him cuddled up against his shoulder shamelessly. Even though they weren't alive and on a partially deserted mountain where a flurry of flakes were flying around them, he felt a little embarrassed to have her fawning over him like that. For some reason, in his mind he was picturing her cooing at him amorously, embracing him like there was no tomorrow. Then, snapping back to reality, his let his arm swing around her shoulders like a warming cloak.

"I used to have a boyfriend who hated me at first," she smiled distantly. "Well, it was more on a friend-friend basis because we were only eight, but...He thought I was too happy for him. One day his father saw me coming in and he shooed me out because he claimed that ever since I had come he had been neglecting his studies." Kara rolled her eyes. "He certainly was talented but I didn't know it was from hours slaving away at a piano and groveling at his father's feet."

Mokuba laughed. "I had a father like that. Stepfather, actually. He'd force my brother to work to the limit! He was a control-freak and did everything he could to get his way. Gozaburo was such a harsh-,"

"Gozaburo, did you say?" Interrupted Kara, looking aghast, like she was seeing someone living traveling on the mountain. "No way! That was my boyfriend's father!"

There was a jolt of remembrance somewhere in the vicinity of his chest. "What was his name?"

Kara's hand stroked her chin in thought. "I do think his name was Noa...Kaiba Noa. Yes, that's right! Sea-green hair, dreamy blue eyes...And a strong love of conversation." She giggled. "I guess I'm getting a bit too deep now, huh? But...He died. In an accident...I remember being depressed for weeks, not being able to get to sleep..."

"That's my stepbrother!" Mokuba piped cheerfully, despite the sob story that was being told to him. He had received his daily dosage of sadness already. "He was mean, but then he went nice!"

Kara forced her mouth into a grin – her personal mask to disguise her internal despair. "Before his dad hired tutors, he used to go to a private school with me. We were called the 'Lovebirds of the Year'...It was great. But after his dad forced him into being home schooled, I only saw him on the few occasions that he went outside."

"Gozaburo's a freak," Mokuba declared, his voice echoing around the wide mountain. "Look at what he did to me!"

"What did he do to you?"

His eye started to twitch uncontrollably as the question burst forth. Wouldn't the Buddha's own messenger know of the horror Gozaburo had caused? Especially with the fact that he had murdered numerous other people?

"He killed me! What else? Without him, I'd still be up and alive instead of in this place!" Mokuba regretted those spiteful words as soon as they escaped his lips. Instead of looked hurt, Kara nodded.

"And without that wind storm _I'd_ still be alive," she said gloomily, burying her face in Mokuba's thick coat of hair. "I just had to walk home from school on the day of that wind storm. I didn't want to go on the bus because I felt like walking alone and thinking about Noa a bit." She grinned, but it looked more like a fake-happy grimace. "An evergreen on the other side of the street came tumbling down and I misjudged it's height. I tried to run to someone's porch, hoping that the tree wouldn't hit there. Instead, it crashed down on the roof and I found myself under debris and a heavy tree..."

A bout of horror washed over Mokuba like a cold tidal wave. "Let's not talk about that," he said quickly, not bothering to respond to the soft eyes that searched him for sympathy. "Shouldn't we keep climbing?"

Kara sniffed and, to Mokuba's surprise, hugged him to tightly that he could feel her ribs pushing against his. "I really want to forget everything, Mokuba, I really do. But I can't...Whenever I see a newly-dead the memories come back." She refused to get up

- - - - -

The sidewalk felt like her red carpet. She felt so exposed on this lonely street with hardly a soul walking on it. It was an industrial street, yes, but this block was just filled with parked cars and people packed into buildings. There were no restaurants or entertainment centers for anyone to come rushing to.

_I walk a lonely road  
The only one that I have ever known  
Don't know where it goes  
But it's home to me and I walk alone _

As she stepped broadly by the buildings, she took out her rage by wiping away the miscellaneous graffiti on deserted work places, knocking over pots of dead plants with her foot, and knocking her knuckles against the wall. Hardly any damage done, but it made her feel so much better.

_I walk this empty street  
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams  
Where the city sleeps  
and I'm the only one and I walk alone_

"Kaiba wasn't who I thought he was," she concluded in a heavy breath after clearing a couple of blocks. "I knew he had a past that scarcely anyone survives, but treating his caretaker that way?" A small, ceramic pot containing a meager amount of dirt and a dying petunia flew onto the ground. The white, stone-like element cracked open like a pumpkin and dirt was spewed across the sidewalk. "...And now I'm disrespecting the dead? I'm such a hypocrite..." Isis gazed down upon the sorry figure, it's roots suspended above the ground, desperately groping for a nutrient source. Slowly, suddenly feeling laggard, she knelt down and scooped it carefully back into the pot.

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me  
'Til then I walk alone_

- - - - -

"ISIS!" Kaiba roared, more in desperation than in insensitivity. Where had she gotten the nerve to yell and then storm out of the room on him like that? A hollow, empty feeling took him over and, like a marionette at the hands of a professional marionette-wielder, he flawlessly thundered down the stairs and out into the street.

_I'm walking down the line  
That divides me somewhere in my mind  
On the border line  
Of the edge and where I walk alone_

Spittle sprayed the gray cement as he uproariously ran down the street, fuming with insults he could give Isis. But first, he felt that he had to vent about what she had said about him. To be frank, he didn't exactly care whether or not he could get the chance to call her something insanely terrible that it'd send her soul flying through a black void of loss. He was much more interested in ranting about the few words that had made his vocal cords want to explode in response to.

_Read between the lines  
What's fucked up and everything's alright  
Check my vital signs  
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone_

"I feel like this everyday," he suddenly realized as he reached the end of the street to face an intersection where he waited for the right time to cross, reviewing his thoughts. _I always feel angry...And lost...But it's so much different. For some reason I never know where I belong even though another part of my mind knows where I do..._Was it even worth being alive if he had constantly bicker with his own conscience about where he fit in to society?

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me  
'Til then I walk alone  
_

The world was a hostile place and Kaiba felt like he couldn't even imagine what lay around the corner. He was all too comfortable with looking up decks on his computer, learning strategies for duels, and crammed inside his office under a hefty accumulation of paper work. Kaiba felt like a lousy businessman that knew nothing of the outside world other than what was happening in the stock market. Until the past week he had no clue how to love another person in a way that could determine his course in life. And now he had lost that newfound ability. _What's wrong with me? _He questioned himself.

_I walk this empty street  
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams  
Where the city sleeps  
And I'm the only one and I walk a..._

_My shadow's the only one that walks beside me  
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating  
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me  
'Til then I walk alone..._

A tanned woman was crouched by the front door of a small cafe that had gone bankrupt more than a month before.

"Isis." He approached, softly saying her name.

"Go away, you heartless beast," she snapped, not even turning her head but somehow recognizing his presence.

"Look, I'm sorry." Those words, when coming out of his mouth, sounded so emotionless to his ears. Not a hint of sympathy swelled from the three words. They were just words spoken in a senseless fashion, apparently apologizing for something. The sender and receiver could only know the deeper meaning.

Isis snorted. "Throughout your entire life, 'I'm sorry' always began a sentence that would reject someone. So where is that sentence now?"

The man was instantly tired of the comments thrown back at him like the offense on a soccer team, always weaving through the defense while the defenders themselves had nothing to protect themselves with.

"What more could you want?" He asked loudly. "You could atleast stand up to greet me. You aren't an avowed environmentalist – you don't need to chose plants over me."

Silence followed this statement. Isis dared herself to say it. "...And what if I do?" She hazarded, going into territory that she shouldn't have been wandering into.

A look of horror flashed onto Kaiba's face for an instant, and turning back to get a full view of her previous love, Isis thought she had captured it.

"Isis, you know what my stepfather did!" He yelled. The noise wouldn't matter, all he wanted was the point to stick like a needle in Isis's mind, pinning down her common sense and making it see what she couldn't. "He tortured me! Killed my little brother who was worth more to me than my own company! What do you want me to do? Serenade his corpse and do rituals around him, tossing flower petals?"

Isis laughed bitterly. Kaiba hadn't meant for the last line to sound as humorous as it had, but the rest of it should've had an effect on her. Didn't she even bother seeing beneath his tough overcoat?

"So you think it's funny? This is no laughing matter, Isis."

Isis stood up, faced him and her hand reached up, hovering above his nose. "Kaiba, take off that mask."

"I'm not wearing one," Kaiba insisted, completely missing the point.

"I mean the one you wear everyday. Show your true self, not something that you wear only to look formidable." Her hand vanished from his visual range. The pale man nodded and collapsed onto Isis.

"Now do you see what I am?" The impression his voice was giving Isis was that he was fading from her. "An empty shell. A person can only lose so much." He sighed contentedly in her arms.

"What do you think you're doing?" She demanded. Except her voice was searching, softened and smooth.

"Showing you my true self." Kaiba grinned impishly. "Now you owe me a kiss."

Isis's hand traveled to her face and she smacked herself on the forehead. _Now I know what he's really like on the inside. Weak but playful._ "Are you sure you're not going to squirm away when I do?"

"Why should I? Now stop stalling, I've been waiting for this."

The woman just stood there, rigid like a frozen penguin that had accidentally become encased inside a glacier. "What happened to you?"

Kaiba laughed, but it wasn't the sardonic one he usually used. It was happy. "Now that my stepfather is gone, what more could I want? I have you...But when we get back to the building...Don't mention this to anyone." His dark eyes lingered around the street. "Word spreads quickly among them."

She smiled, nodded, and leaned into kiss him. But yet another something halted their own moment together. It wasn't exactly a parade of people marching down the street, eyes glued to them, but it was bad enough to send them running.

Jounouchi, Yuugi, Anzu, and Honda were coming down the street, swinging their arms and in deep conversation. Jounouchi's left hand was in his pocket and the other arm was making enormous, exaggerated gestures that would have been humanly impossible had he not been so desperate to prove his point to Yuugi. Yuugi was watching his best friend with imploring violet eyes. Anzu was walking alongside Honda, chatting rapidly about something Honda apparently didn't understand, but was replying to.

Then, Jounouchi's free hand shot right out of his pocket and he jabbed a finger in Kaiba and Isis's direction, drawing the group's attention to them. Isis felt her cheeks turning red, burning across her face like a little kid playing with a cherry-colored marker.

"Hey, look, guys!" Jounouchi exclaimed cheerfully. "Isis and Kaiba are marrying each other right on the sidewalk!" Apparently Jounouchi had no clue what kissing was.

"Shut up, Jou, and leave them alone," Anzu replied, urging the group alone. They continued to leave Kaiba and Isis alone without words, but their heads often turned in the most obvious way, watching them with amusement.


	33. Dedication

**Lightning-Dono**: If no one has yet noticed, this fanfic's updates will not be updated as frequently as before. Now it will be updated 1-2 times a week. I've scheduled myself so I have enough time for homework, friends, video games, reading, and writing these fanfics. Also, I'll be working hard on my imagery and quality writing for you guys' reading pleasures. :D Plus, I will be switching from this fanfic to the other one I am currently writing. This fanfic is coming to an end, anyway. Can't stretch it any further than this. xD;

Except...I'm sorry to say this, but this fanfic will end on the next chapter. I've already planned it. If you'd like, check out my other fanfics.

MERRY CHRISTMANNUKWANZAKA! (I really don't think that's how you spell it, but close enough. xD) This chapter is more of a humorous type thing to lighten up the mood.

Answers to the Reviews

**Vanessa463 **– Seto x Isis rocks! So much better than...No offense to fans...Yuugi x Rebecca. I mean, I don't like Rebecca. She's so annoying! Thanks for the definition and expansion of my vocabulary! Blame my parents for speaking so much Vietnamese around me. ((blames))

**Witch01** – Thank you! Um...Is this soon enough? oO; I'm a little laggard.

-----

"What do they think they're doing?" Jounouchi asked, still eyeing the couple with distaste. "Smooching right infront of a public building. This isn't high school. I can find plenty more romantic places than that place."

Anzu was a little offended by this comment for some reason. "Leave them alone, Jou," she urged, annoyed. "If it were me and...someone else," her eyes shifted slightly in the direction of Yuugi's head, "you wouldn't be saying anything."

The blonde laughed heartily. "I'd have much to say. I'd say, 'When are you getting married?'"

The girl looked ready to smack him across the face brashly. Jounouchi, however, broke into fits of laughter. "Really Anzu, you think I didn't see your eyes?"

Anzu blushed full in the face, making her look more like a tomato decorated with facial features and hair instead of a rather angry human. "Jounouchi, I must admit that you have the most INSENSITIVE soul in the world!" She continued to bash her companion with words that would make grandmothers gasp. Yuugi chuckled nervously.

Honda picked this exact moment to pass gas, hoping it wouldn't be heard. Except it was a little bit louder than he had expected.

There was an abrupt pause as soon as the molecules of stink were released from an unmentioned source. The others didn't even bother taking a moment to ponder upon who had let it out. Instead, they instantly snapped their attention towards Honda, who grinned in what he thought was an innocent way.

- - - - -

"You have to learn a pleading technique," Kara was telling Mokuba as they flapped their wings gently to glide slowly up one slide of the mountain. Their feathery wings slapped against each other, causing Kara to often burst into a fit of giggles that seemed incurable. "I'm sorry," she gasped. "It's just so fun when you're around! Anyway, you need to impress the Buddha. Add a little personal flair into it."

"How so?"

"Well, maybe compliment upon his long, droopy earlobes with honesty and make sure he's buying it. Then when you speak, don't try to sound desperate. Sound like you do when you're talking to me."

Mokuba tried to image a powerful being falling for a simple trick like buttering him up. "I don't think that'll work."

Kara's eyelashes batted in order to rid of the light snow that was resting on them. "You know, he's a little softy. I've seen many a soul pass through without him bothering them."

"Riiiight."

"You don't believe me?" She poked him in the shoulder playfully.

Mokuba winced slightly. "Not really. I mean, he's so wise and a few words can get you to eternal peace?"

"He can sense whether or not you have committed sin or been nice in your life."

"Sounds like Santa."

Kara raised an eyebrow. "If you say that, he'll probably think you were nuts. Besides..." Her eyes wandered towards the peak that was now within their field of vision. "He's right up there. Just a bit further."

- - - - -

Isis sincerely wished that the gang would just bug off. Jounouchi was being annoying as hell, just casting fascinated looks back towards she and Seto. If he had gone to high school, he would've seen the many couples scattered across the halls.

"Seto," she murmured, pushing aside his hair to reveal a completely smooth forehead.

"Hmm...?"

"Can we...um..."

"Marry?"

Isis blushed furiously, lugging him over to the abandoned side of the block of buildings. It was strangely clean, but she didn't take the time to think about something that wouldn't have affected her life, anyway. Although it was a little odd to stand in an alley surrounded by sparkling trash cans.

"Well...Er...Yes."

"Accepted."

Kaiba's stood up, raised his head, and kissed her passionately in her hair, a very funny choice for someone as straightforward as him. "Have it this Saturday."

"That's tomorrow!"

"I have many workers. They shall help us prepare." He reached down to grab each of her hands, bringing them together. The folds of her skirt straightened in the wind as it blew the hem backwards, constricting her legs dangerously. Isis's hair blew back and Kaiba's hair flew forward to tickle her face. "I don't want to lose you."

"So you're doing it early...Because of that?" Isis laughed in a light-hearted way. "I'll be sure to tell Malik about this. And Yuugi."

Kaiba's eyes stopped wandering to focus on a tree that was teetering back and forth in the wind. "I suppose just this once Yuugi can be invited." A forced smile made it's way to his face, stretching his mouth in an abnormal way. "And...That inu."

Isis nearly jumped with surprise in the acceptance and dedication Kaiba was showing. Just to fulfill her greatest desires and interests.

"Kaiba-kun..."

"Mmmm?"

"I hope tomorrow will go well."

"Don't think like that. Jinxing our luck isn't what you want, right?"

His hands subconsciously went to her narrow waist, taking her in. "See you tomorrow." Massaging his shoulders for a second, she nodded gaily, waved, and skipped on the down the street.


	34. Freed Soul

**Lightning-Dono**: All right, the grand finale comes now. :)

The lyrics during the wedding scene and Mokuba's...er...you'll see...are the translated lyrics of "Kaze to Issho ni" from Pocket Monsters or Pokemon. The song is up for download in a link I put inside the latest update on my profile.

If you listen to it while reading, you'll find that it fits. It has this grand air about it...

I did a lot of clothing describing in this chapter. It helps you envision the characters better. xD;

LISTEN. I've never been to a formal wedding before, so I didn't know what it was like. Therefore, I kind of made up my own wedding that kind of fit Kaiba's tastes. :P

-----

All of the invited guests were standing on the velvety carpet of Kaiba's main building within the special chamber that Kaiba used for major parties and events. Often other businesses with little to none space rented to the room for work parties. It was a grand place with red floor-to-wall carpeting. Flowers were strewn across the high ceiling. At the front where speeches and important figures stood to speak there was a load of flowers tacked onto the walls. Banners proclaiming Kaiba and Isis's names shimmered in the heavy lighting. All in all, it carried the impression of a church, but only to those of the untrained eye. It was much more modern looking with a touch of ancient tradition that was visible when one reached the two oak doors that provided entry to the grand room.

Yuugi was in a tight, choking black suit that didn't fit his sense of fashion at all. His hair contrasted greatly with the black that covered him. Yuugi's grandfather himself had hand-forced a purple tie onto Yuugi, saying that it matched his eyes very well. However, Yuugi had removed it and no longer knew how to put it back on, which embarrassed him greatly when he saw that even Jounouchi was wearing a tie.

"I thought I'd bring Shizuka-chan along," he grinned. Shizuka was wearing a traditional kimono, complete with a fan that she held dormant in her hand. It sported oriental designs, as did her pink flowery kimono. Jounouchi's suit was a very dark blue, like a night sky. His tie was a light blue to match with swirling lines that went no where in particular. "I was going to make my hair in a Mohawk, just to distract Kaiba, but my mom told me not to."

"This is his wedding, Onii-chan," Shizuka scolded. "It's a happy time of the year for him!"

"Yes..." Yuugi smiled, thinking over his relation with Kaiba. "He was never sociable. I hope now that he's engaged to someone that he'll be easier to communicate with."

Jounouchi snorted loudly. Several formal guests turned to glare at him angrily, like he had accidentally destroyed a valuable painting. How accidental that would've been no one really knew, but after a moment of awkward silence, everyone resumed their conversing.

"He nearly hissed and scratched out my eyes when I approached him the last time to ask him something. The guy needs anger management lessons. Being married or engaged or whatever won't change him a bit!" The blonde declared.

Then, Anzu burst through the oak doors, huffing her lungs out. With what she was wearing, she could've been a replacement for the bride herself. The white shimmering gown went all the way to her pearly white high heels. A clipped rose had been stuck in a rubbed band and tied to her hair. The dew still clung onto the soft petals, indicating that it was a last minute addition. Unless she had used drops of super glue on it and the rose was really fake. Anzu's hair was sleek and shiny, reaching to her shoulders. Light blush had been applied to her usually pale cheeks and long silver earrings hung from her usually empty lobes.

Yuugi was breathless for a second when he first saw her, but regained his composure. But his heart was beating faster than it should've been. For a second he wanted this wedding to be for him, but beat the idea out of his mind.

"You look nice today," Honda complimented, emerging from the shadows, still jerking on his tight black socks.

"Where did _you_ come from?" Jounouchi yelled. Luckily, amidst the cheerful voices around him, it sounded like a whisper.

"I've been trying to put these stinking socks on before you guys even got here!" He growled viciously, tugging them on and hopping around on one foot.

A bearded man approached a microphone at the front. "May all guests take a seat and the wedding ceremony begin!"

The people scrambled to take a seat on the pew-like benches that were lined up like those in a church. Anzu beckoned the gang over, patting the seats next to her happily. They sat down next to her, giving their attention to the man at the front.

- - - - -

"Please, I didn't do anything wrong!" Mokuba was claiming desperately, the Buddha sitting before him stationary, his eyes closed. The boy wasn't quite sure if he was even listening, but after arguing with the Buddha himself for a few minutes, it was getting so pointless that Mokuba wouldn't blame him.

"You're blowing it..." Kara muttered out of the corner of her mouth, arms crossed and tapping her toe on the limestone that had formed atop the mountain.

"What did you feel when you died?" The Buddha questioned, his deep voice ringing across the hills and valleys that were visible.

Mokuba didn't even have to think about this. He'd been feeling it the whole time, even when he had been cuddled up against Kara. "Well, sad...desperate...hopeful..." He sighed. "Don't you understand?"

The Buddha's eyes snapped open freakishly. "Yes...I do." Hopeless tones tainted his powerful voice. He was torn between two decisions – throwing the young boy back down in the wretched alley or sending him to rebirth? Perhaps even eternal peace, if only someone carrying such a burden on his shoulders and trouble in the mind could achieve that stage.

"So what'll it be?"

"Don't speak to Buddha-sama in such an ignorant manner!" Kara suddenly yelled, stamping her foot. The Buddha turned his head, a look of incomprehensible surprise written all over his face. Like he had been riding a tame horse but it had just bucked him off and started trampling an old lady.

"Calm yourself, Kara," he said calmly, used to being addressed rudely by those who didn't know his unfathomable power, which he often suppressed.

Kara bowed hastily. "Yes, Buddha-sama."

"I shall make my decision soon enough. For now, you both are dismissed to do as you please for an hour while I consult greater beings." His eyes shut tight, eyelashes lying prone to the soft sprinkles falling from the sky.

- - - - -

"Today you will witness the most spectacular wedding of the year, where world renowned Kaiba Seto gets married to former member of the Egyptian Tomb Keeper Clan, Isis Ishtar!"

Clapping was produced from a man in the first row, which then got everyone going. Dainty giggling occurred on the other side of Yuugi and he turned to notice that the lady next to him was half crying and laughing. In slight disgust, he scooted into Anzu, made a noise, and got shushed by her.

An advanced choir at the nearby college stood on the bleachers neighboring the highly decorated stage, robed and singing their hearts out. Pure emotion poured through the air, reaching the ears of all. A soft tune played by two aspiring flutists followed in the background, supporting the voices. The soloist stepped down from the bleachers, leaned towards the nearest microphone supplied and sang.

_"You go on walking 'till where will you go?"_

_I stopped as the wind asked me_

Her voice was rich and flowing, easily fluctuating to reach the notes that were within range. Every error she made was turned into a moment of glory. She exaggerated the dynamics and kept the beat with her tapping toe.

This was also the cue for Kaiba to walk Isis up the isle. Acknowledging the fact that their fathers were unavailable, he had designed the formatting himself. It would be a short ceremony, but it would be a rewarding experience for everyone. Especially the two getting married themselves. The white looked oddly bright against her tan skin. Her long glove expanded to her elbow, the dress trailed across the floor, and ahead of them was a petite flower girl tossing flower petals. She happened to be Rebecca with a sparkling turquoise gown that looked all too good against her hair.

_The first drum rolls_

_One more life has just begun_

Kaiba's elbow hooked onto Isis's and he held his other arm still at his side, not allowing it to swing. Isis, however, was happily waving grandly to the audience, making little motion with her hand but somehow making it look wonderfully majestic. Rebecca forked the road and went off the left to rest by the wall, making a big show of tossing remaining flower petals towards the couple.

_Finally you search for something_

_Open those little hands_

_Soon enough you discover_

Not yourself but another 

Although Isis paled in comparison to Kaiba's height, she made up for it by her smiling face. Never had another bride looked so happy to be walking up to a flower-strewn stage with the one man she loved.

"Do you both promise to keep your partner in good health, treat them well, and show ultimate devotion?"

_What kind of corny speech is that?_ Kaiba wondered, watching the man with dislike. _I wanted this wedding to be one to remember because of it's beauty, not because it had some weird speech stating everything we'd try to do, anyway._ But whatever Kaiba had thought of the speech disintegrated as they turned towards each other. Isis's face shone with mirth, her eyes overflowing with joy that might come spilling out any moment. Kaiba found himself wanting to dive into those deep blue eyes, wallowing in the happiness, letting it flood him over until he was devoid of all sorrow.

_Birthday celebration, more candles_

_I set off on a journey from a town_

"May the both of you live together and be with each other until your last breaths."

The sense of togetherness was overwhelming. Kaiba and Isis urgently waited for the sign that they should start kissing. There was no ring bearer, so the sign was for the man to hand them the ring. The man was so slow in reacting that the world might as well have been stopped in a time. The crowd held their collective breaths. Shizuka clung to Jounouchi in fear that she might lose herself and start singing songs to the people around her. Jounouchi's heart was beating double-time in his chest, his eyes looking like they would pop once Kaiba and Isis's lips connected. Anzu was bouncing up and down in her seat with excitement. The lady beside Yuugi looked like she was about to leave the room to raid a store for tissues she was crying silently so hard. Yuugi strained to look over the sea of heads that had been obscuring his vision for most of the ceremony. Especially since the man infront of him was atleast two feet taller with sharp, pointy hair. But all complaints failed when he realized that 'the man' was actually Honda without enough room on their bench, forcing him to move a row ahead.

The man reached within his pocket to reveal a jewelry store box that contained soft tissue. Inside the depths of tissue was the shining diamond ring that longed to see daylight.

_Even now you search for something_

_Those large eyes shine_

_Is your pocket what is there_

_Is not you but another_

Kaiba removed the ring from the tissue, a side of the diamond glinting in the light that spilled from a light bulb above them, beamed directly at the stage. Isis's hand went up. She removed the glove from that hand, throwing it into the audience. A young man grabbed it and stuffed it greedily into his pocket. The brown-haired man slipped the ring onto Isis's finger, the cool gold running down her finger until it reached the base. The other glove went off, tossed into the audience in another direction. The man that had gotten hold of the first one looked sorely disappointed to have not been able to receive a full set.

Their hands went together, grasping each other like there was no tomorrow. Isis and Kaiba took one last look into each other's eyes and then leaned in for the kiss. In the audience, Malik emitted a loud sniff, which was halted by Rishid who elbowed him in the ribs.

The kiss seemed to last an eternity. The audience clapped enthusiastically, shouting, "Congratulations!" and laughing whole-heartedly. Kaiba, who was used to such publicity, turned red from the attention as soon as they let go.

"Let's keep true to what he said, okay?" Isis whispered.

"Sure." He smiled. This time not in a way that made people want to throw bricks at his mouth, but a genuine one that made him gorgeous beyond reasoning. "I hope Mokuba is well."

"I do, too."

"But I have to tell you something."

Isis looked up at him.

"I have a whole collection of...Very well carved Duel Monsters decorations..." Kaiba coughed. "I'm quite the artist, see...Would you like some?"

The woman was thrilled. "We're living together now, aren't we? Show me later." She grinned. "I want to join in on the festivities. I'm starving!"

Together, the couple walked into the crowd, arms linked and a single diamond shining in the light.

_Numerous encounters and_

_Numerous farewells_

_Memories like visions are also few_

Outside, although the clouds had parted, light rain pattered onto the ground. A miracle that defied all laws of nature done by a single soul that had been freed.

- - - - -

Mokuba had been accepted into freedom on all planes above the current one where he can be in eternal peace and never fall into the wrong hands again. The Buddha had called it the Buddhism version of 'Heaven' and Mokuba was crying with joy from the acceptance. The requirements were that he love himself instead of worrying all too much about others.

"In heaven, the only person you will have is yourself. While the other angels will communicate with you, to keep yourself in heaven you must be able to be happy."

Mokuba nodded to this without regret, knowing that he could do it.

_You go on walking 'till where will you go?"_

_I gazed at the sky as the wind asked me_

An opalescent robe that extended down to his calves, allowing his legs to remain mobile replaced his clothing. Mokuba floated upwards slowly, waving to Kara, tears streaming down his soft cheeks.

_"You go on walking 'till where shall you go?"_

_Together with the wind let's go once more_

"Can you come visit me in heaven?" He asked tearfully.

"...No. But I'll never forget about you!" Kara reached upwards to grab both sides of his face. She pecked him on the cheek, her lips dampened, but she didn't care. "Maybe I'll see you again someday when I get up there!"

"Sayonara, Kara-chan!" Mokuba cried, crying with joy...But it was mixed with sadness all the same. He had known her for such a short time but it had felt like centuries. "I'll see you again someday!"

_Stamping across the earth I shall go anywhere_

_'Till I get hold of the dream I aimed for_

"I hope so!" Kara screamed, the same salty liquid her lips had touched pouring down her face. "I'll try and visit!"

_Stamping across the earth I shall go anywhere_

_'Till I get hold of the dream I aimed for_

The newly born angel soared into the colorful universe above, waving distantly to a friend, letting the whole world know how happy he had becoming by shedding his great happiness down onto the earth.

-----

This fanfic is now completed. :D If you're a Harvest Moon fan, go ahead and read 'Forget me Now', which I will be continuing. And if not, keep checking back for any more Yuugi Ou fics. Until then, ja ne!

An Authoress note will be following this chapter shortly.

x x x

- **Lightning-Dono **


	35. Authoress Note

...And here is the promised Authoress Note. :) I include one of these in most of my multi-chapter fanfics, just for thanking readers and telling you all some things that I had intended to write, but changed. But first, I believe in proper etiquette, so I will thank all of you consistent readers first. :D (Or...just any old reader I remember because my internet is screwed up at the moment.)

**can't think** – You are the awesome-est! You stuck with me from the very first chapter I put out to the very end, never failing to review any chapters unless you were gone! ((glomp)) (Don't you hate that they don't allow asterisks?) Also, you never disapproved of what I wrote, no matter how bad it might've been. I thank you SO, SO much!

**ryouholic** – I know you disliked the way I approached the Seto x Isis part, but hey, you were straightforward with it and...didn't say it in a hateful way. For that, I thank you for your patience and maturity. :)

**Vanessa463 **- You were one of the later reviewers, but I luff you bunches! (Oh my gosh, I'm turning into a demented teddy bear!! 0.0) You revived a new word that had been long lost in the vortex I call my mind (The word 'bodacious'. Remember that?). Thank you for approving of what I did! :D

**Witch01** – Thanks for reading it in general. :) I'm always glad to have appreciative people like you reading my fanfics...It's great to know that people like what you write! It really is!

Let's give those four people a round of applause, okay? ((claps vigorously))

Now, for the humor of it all. What I had originally planned...

**1) **When Kaiba had sent Isis off on a helicopter with the fuel tank containing hardly anything, she was originally meant to die. I was going to make Kaiba fly over to the ruins, talk to her in her last moments, confess his hidden love, and start crying. Instead, I thought that would be too predictable later on and thought of something else.

**2)** When Gozaburo and Kaiba had their "showdown" at the hospital, _Kaiba_ was going to die (God, I have a dark mind. oO;). But then...I didn't want him to die at the hands of his horrible step father, was a retreat was in order.

**3) **In my attempts to try and make Kaiba not so OOC (For those who don't know, it's an acronym for 'out-of-character'), I was going to make him just get over Mokuba's death instantly and move on. But then, I really believe in strong sibling bonds, so that was not to be.

**4)** When Gozaburo broke into Kaiba's secondary building, his original entrance (In my mind, I thought it all out first.) was leaping through a window wearing black and tying Isis to something. Then again, when I tried to picture it, he sounded like a fifty-five year old man impersonating a talented ninja.

**5)** Mokuba wasn't supposed to get to the Buddha so quickly (Once again, in my mind.). Instead, I pictured him having sappy love moments with Kara. Later on, I realized that when I introduced him in earlier chapters, he wasn't like someone who would do that. Too happy-go-lucky to stick with a girl. xD; So away the idea went and they were just very good friends...or something.

Not as long as you thought? I'm sorry...:( But I must get onto more important matters. I might make a continuation to this fanfic, but that probably won't happen, so don't beg. However, I included a little description of some other of my Yu-Gi-Oh fanfics if you really like my writing enough to read them.

**Movie in the Making ****  
Genre**: Humor/General **  
My Rating**: 9/10**  
Description**: Ever seen the Yu-Gi-Oh! Movie? Were you disappointed because of how it was played out? The plot? Well, this fanfic is dedicated to all the things that happened behind the scenes of the semi-polished over movie...

**Retrieval  
Genre**: Angst  
**My Rating**: 8.5/10  
**Description**: An angst-driven one-shot on Noa's past, what had truly happened, and how his emotions had been wavering out of control since his own father had shunned him aside. Goes from his death to the Noa Arc.

**One Summer Day  
Genre**: Angst  
**My Rating**: 8/10  
**Description**: My take on Jounouchi's past without any interpretation from the manga. Very cute and sad.

**Drowning in a Nightmare   
Genre**: Angst/Horror  
**My Rating**: 5/10  
**Description**: ((coughcough)) Ihatethisfanfic ((coughcough)) It's horrible, clumped together in huge blocks because for some reason I didn't make paragraphs whenever characters spoke. Very amateur-like work as it was my first fanfic. Yuugi and company are roaming around, once again looking for adventure. Bakura, who mysteriously got Kaiba to make him a body, is torturing Ryou. He is also merciless and doesn't really care about who and what gets in his way...He also hates how I made the fanfic and wishes that I never wrote it at all. I do, too. Not a very good first impression, putting up something so horrible. 

And those are some fanfics I've made! Trust me...About 50 percent of my fanfics are Yuugi Ou/Yu-Gi-Oh, so you shouldn't need to look hard.

I feel so attached to you guys, though. You all were with me every step of the way, whether or not you left a message saying, "Hey, I liked it." or not. I treasured and bathed in your attention, compliments, comments, and suggestions. It was beautiful! But now it's time to say good-bye and I don't want to go anywhere. Just remember that Lightning-Chan (That's my real web alias, but someone took it on here already.) will be checking back on your pages, so you'd better have some fanfics to present! ;)

Loving you all toa bursting point,

**--Lightning-Dono **AKA** Lightning-Chan**

_"A true love story never ends."_


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